Collier County ATV park moves a step closer to reality/ Naples Daily News
January 19, 2010
NAPLES — Off-roaders might one day have a new place to ride after Collier County commissioners took a first step Tuesday toward creating an outdoor recreation area at an iconic spot for Everglades restoration.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a plan by Miami-Dade County to build a visitor’s center, campgrounds, fishing piers, archery range, hiking trails and ATV trails on 1,600 acres at the former jetport site in Big Cypress National Preserve.
The plan next goes to the state Department of Community Affairs for review and would have to survive a second vote by county commissioners later this year. It also still needs state and federal environmental permits.
A lack of ATV riding spots has been a sore spot in Collier County for years.
Last year, Collier County sued the South Florida Water Management District for not living up to a pledge to find 640 acres for ATV riders as part of a deal by which the county turned over roads for an Everglades restoration project in Picayune Strand State Forest.
One ATV advocate questioned how much good the jetport plans could do to fill the gap for the thousands of registered ATV owners in South Florda.
“How are you going to fit 15,000 ATVers on a 10-mile, 15-mile trail?” Collier County resident Rick Varela said.
He urged commissioners to expand the 45 miles of trails Miami-Dade planners say already exist at the site.
Commissioner Frank Halas said the Miami-Dade plan is a welcome start.
“I don’t think you want to be greedy,” Halas said. “But at least it’s an opening.”
Commissioner Jim Coletta called the plan “completely inadequate” to meeting the need but that it shouldn’t be turned away.
“I want to maximize this limited resource out there rather than limit it,” he said.
Tuesday’s vote included a provision that Collier County residents would have the same rights to use the jetport recreation area as Miami-Dade residents.
The jetport, now called the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, sits north of U.S. 41 East at the Collier-Dade county line.
The site, owned by Miami-Dade County, galvanized a national movement around Everglades restoration and led to the creation of the Big Cypress preserve in 1974.
Last month, fighter jets forced a civilian pilot to land at the jetport runway after he took off from the Tampa area without air traffic control clearance.
Everglades conservation advocate Alan Farago told commissioners they couldn’t find a worse place for ATVs.
The conservation chairman for Friends of the Everglades, which Everglades matriarch Marjory Stoneman Douglas created in response to the original jetport plans, put the worthiness of a fight over Miami-Dade’s plans on a scale of one to 10.
“This is pretty much a 10 for us,” he said.
5 comments:
Pepe, just having fun at the public expense. Chasing environmentalists down a rabbit hole. Never going to happen.
ATV's are a blight. They're noisy and half of them won't stsy on the paths and will royally screw up the undergrowth. They have no place in a natural habitat. Horse trails would be a lot less destructive.
The next thing you know they will be screaming for a place to go mudbogging.
This is the most absurd thing I have read about in a long time. What the hell are our elected officials thinking.? Just because there are thousands of registered ATV users in South Florida does not mean we need to build a playground for them in the most environmentally sensitive area of Florida. THIS IS LUDICROUS! Maybe these people should have thought about the practicality of owning one of these vehicles in a suburban setting before they bought one. I say sell the damm thing or move out to a rural area where you can ride these things on your own property and destroy what is rightfully yours, not mine!
Pepe Diaz has probably been promised a fleet of these ATV's for him and his buddies if he can get this passed. Why else would someone push for something so ridiculous unless there was some sort of political or financial gain involed. Miami-Dade business as usual.
If they are "All Terrain" why not permit for I-95 n local roads?
ATV's smell nasty, sound like lawn-mowers, not unlike jet-skis.
Those nature-shredders are marketed to macho-challenged urbanites who need a "bigboytoy" substitute for the "power process" they forfeited long ago.
Post a Comment