Sergio Pino
Miami developer Sergio Pino’s Century Homebuilders paid a $460,000 settlement to conclude a six-year, federal wetlands protection case, Daily Business Review reported.
The federal government gave Century, where Pino is president and chief executive, a permit for the Islands of Doral development in West Miami-Dade County in 2003, with one caveat. [more]
The River of Grass greenway, which will constitute part of the proposed Everglades greenway
Public trails and bike paths may one day connect Miami, Naples and Everglades City, the Miami Herald reported. The National Park Service and planners in Miami-Dade County’s parks department are at work to create a network of trails and paths that will form the “Everglades greenway,” which would encourage the public to enjoy the natural preserve, while not disrupting its ecology with cars, the paper said. However, it could take as long as a generation to develop the public space. [more]
The Everglades
After years of political bickering and budget shortfalls, the Federal Government gave its approval for an $880 million plan sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the South Florida Water Management District to improve water quality in the Everglades, Bloomberg reported. Despite being a key water source for millions of South Florida residents, decades of fertilizer runoff from farmland have left the Everglade’s dangerously polluted. [more]
President Barack Obama and the Everglades
President Barack Obama sought to allocate $231.75 million for the restoration of the Everglades in Palm Beach County in his budget proposal released Monday, the Associated Press reported.
The budget for the restoration project is roughly equivalent — when taking a one-time $30 million payment for land acquisition into account — to the budget for the restoration in 2011, despite Congress Republicans seeking significant federal budget cuts. [more]
In advance of a South Florida Water Management District board meeting scheduled for today, at least two environmentalist groups are raising concerns that the district will sell off too much public land in its Everglades restoration.
According to the Sun Sentinel, the groups, Audubon of Florida and the Sierra Club, are most concerned with the plan to sell about 1,000 acres of public land along Bird Road in Miami-Dade County. [more]
The Miccosukee Tribe’s plea for a federal judge to strike down Gov. Charlie Crist’s $197 million deal for 26,800 acres of U.S. Sugar-owned land in the Everglades has been denied. The Miccosukees had said that the South Florida Water Management District would be using money to pay for the land that is needed for an already-stalled Everglades restoration project in western Palm Beach County. In a ruling released yesterday, U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said that the district, which he ordered in March to restart that project, would be able to pay for both the restoration project and the U.S. Sugar deal and that “enjoining a vote on the expenditure of funds may be beyond the court’s power.” The latest, slimmed-down version of the deal was approved earlier this month and is expected to close Oct. 11. The Florida Supreme Court is still expected to render an opinion. [Miami Herald]
The board of the South Florida Water Management District today unanimously approved the latest version of Gov. Charlie Crist’s Everglades nearly 27,000-square-foot land deal with U.S. Sugar. The board said the $197 million purchase — though downsized from its original form — was important for restoring the Everglades. The land still involved in the deal includes 17,900 acres of citrus groves in Hendry County and 8,900 acres of sugar fields in Palm Beach County. The state also has an option to buy the remaining parcels of land from U.S. Sugar for $7,400 per acre over the next three years, or at market price over the next 10 years. [Miami Herald]
Roughly 100 Tea Party protesters gathered outside the South Florida Water Management District headquarters in West Palm Beach yesterday in opposition of the state’s planned $500 million Everglades land acquisition from U.S. Sugar. The deal, proposed by Gov. Charlie Crist last year, is intended to help provide clean drinking water to the region. Critics called the purchase a corporate “bailout” that does not serve public interests and could delay restoration of the Everglades. [Palm Beach Post]
A scheduled vote on a controversial 11-story Marriott hotel and three office towers near the edge of the Everglades tonight could be shelved by Commissioner Sheila Alu, who is taking issue with the site’s proximity to a gun range at Markham Park. Alu is calling for a ballistics study prior to a vote on the developer’s request to build closer to the Everglades. The current site was rezoned from recreational to commercial use in 1987. [Sun Sentinel]
Governor Charlie Crist is trying to finalize a $536 million deal to buy 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar, a deal that has been in the works for some time. Today, the Florida Supreme Court will hear the case and determine whether the South Florida Water Management District is able to borrow the money required for the purchase. The Water Management District is spearheading the Everglades restoration plan. The deal, if approved, would give the state a huge amount of property south of Lake Okeechobee where restoration was never possible. Gov. Crist announced the purchase in June 2008, but the proposal has proven to be divisive. [Sun Sentinel] Comments
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