Off Road Vehicle Plan in Everglades: State says to Collier and Miami-Dade county commissions; you have to be kidding. by gimleteye

Now the the State of Florida has strongly recommended against the plan to put an off-road vehicle park at the site of the Everglades Jetport in the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve, it would be interesting to know how much time, energy and money was wasted by county commissioners on this hair-brained scheme to amend the county master plan for Collier; lead by Pepe Diaz with compliance of the Collier County commission. (For the earlier post on this topic, that received wide national distribution, read here.)

Now that the state has weighed in, this whole mess seems to be exactly the kind of diversionary tactic that the late Wade Hopping excelled at, in Tallahassee: sending conservationists in a tizzy in one direction, so that in another direction some really bad legislation could get done. What a complete, utter waste of effort. It really is time for the public and taxpayers to demand that costs, including staff time, be included in documentation offered to the state, so that we can put numbers to the madness that even freezes up state agencies in meaningless fishing expeditions. Interestingly, the only state agency to peep up in qualified support for the plan-- and even it couldn't do so with a straight face-- was the agency chaired by Miami lobbyist Rodney Barreto, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Barreto is scarcely a neutral player or contributor to Florida's efforts to protect the Everglades: he has been part of a group of land speculators who made millions during the housing boom pushing suburbs west toward the Everglades. Draining wetlands and putting more people in line to be the next constituency for more drained wetlands is all part of the plan. That is what Pepe Diaz' plan to insert a new Lowe's Home Improvement store in far West Dade, outside the UDB, is all about. The state rejected that, too, after years of court costs and wrangling.

Diaz (see our archive for more on this county commissioner, under 'Pepe Diaz') needs to be returned to the private sector, along with the unreformable majority that make sport of the land use planning processes and political gamesmanship on behalf of lobbyists and land speculators. Another reason why Florida voters must stand up and support Amendment 4, Florida Hometown Democracy. Barreto, Diaz et al. know perfectly well if the plan to put off-road vehicles in the middle of the Everglades was put up to a vote, it would never have passed in a million years.