| Commissioners could move to give
up county roads in southern Estates
(Note: This reporter is either very naive, or he's mastered Language Deception 101 and Hagelian Dialectic 102. Reader beware! Emotions and not intellect are being targeted -- note the number of times nebulous words like 'could' are used in order to 'create a crisis.') July 27, 2003 By Eric Staats, senior environmental writer emstaats@naplesnews.com or 239-263-4780 Naples Daily News 1075 Central Ave. Naples, FL 34102 239-262-3161 Fax: 239-435-3451 To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@naplesnews.com (250-word limit) A logjam over an Everglades restoration project in Collier County's back yard could shake loose Tuesday. After months of resistance, county commissioners are set to take a first step toward giving up its roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates, where restorers plan to tear out roads and plug canals that crisscross the abandoned subdivision south of Interstate 75. The project, a state and federal partnership, would return natural water flows to the Ten Thousand Islands and help recharge the county's underground drinking water supply. County commissioners want more, though. Debate over the roads has featured concern about public access in the Estates for swamp buggies and ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) and has brought into focus the county's role in Everglades restoration. An original proposal would have allowed the county to destroy wetlands for public works projects or roads in exchange for the state getting the roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates. State opposition scuttled the idea. County Manager Jim Mudd, who has led the county's negotiations over the roads, is lukewarm on a new deal up for a vote Tuesday. A public hearing begins at 1 p.m. However, he said, the alternative is "pretty ugly:" defending a condemnation case brought by the Florida Cabinet to set a value for the roads and risking future state grants by alienating Gov. Jeb Bush. "Am I thrilled with the deal? No," Mudd said. "Is it the best we can do? Yes." If county commissioners approve the agreement Tuesday, the next step would be a public hearing within 90 days on whether the county should give up its roads in the Estates. The state already owns the land over which the roads run. If commissioners vote to give up the roads, here's what the county would get in return: The Big Cypress Basin, the local governing arm of the South Florida Water Management District, would spend $1 million each year to maintain the county's secondary drainage system, which feeds the big roadside canals already maintained by the basin. The money would keep coming for 20 years or until the Big Cypress Basin takes over the drainage system completely, whichever comes first. The state, Water Management District or Big Cypress Basin would hand over a square mile of "unimproved land" to the county no later than October 2005 for use by ATV riders and other "recreational purposes." The deal doesn't specify the location of the parcel, but the county would be able to reject any land for any reason. The county would turn over Janes Scenic Drive, which runs through the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve east of Southern Golden Gate Estates, and Miller Boulevard extension, which connects the Estates to U.S. 41 East, to the state. The county has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare the public's right to use the extension, which runs over mostly state-owned land. Under the deal, the county would drop the lawsuit; the state and the county each would pay its own legal fees. Some of the rights of way the county would give up would be maintained by the Water Management District for public access and maintenance of the restoration project. A place to ride Outdoor groups that want space for swamp buggies and ATVs are watching negotiations over the roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates, also known as the Picayune Strand State Forest. "Our big concern is we're not going to be able to use the area for anything," said Wayne Jenkins, president of the Collier Sportsmen and Conservation Club. Florida Outdoor Alliance spokesman Brain McMahon said he wants to know more about the proposed ATV park: where would it be, who would run it, who would pay the insurance tab, how much would it cost to develop the park and would environmental regulators permit it? "I'd like to see something more than a piece of paper that says you get 640 acres of land two years from now," McMahon said. McMahon organized a public access rally at Picayune Strand State Forest last year. Hundreds of people from all over South Florida came to protest the closing of Bad Luck Prairie, a favored ATV riding spot at the southern end of the forest, north of U.S. 41 East. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Division of Forestry, backed off before the rally, and a search is on for a new site for ATV riders to have their fun in the mud. Forestry Supervisor Sonja Durrwachter said Bad Luck Prairie cannot sustain the abuse it is getting under the wheels of ATVs that are chewing up the prairie's grasslands. The forestry division is evaluating 1,000 acres of old farm fields off Sabal Palm Road in Belle Meade, public land west of Southern Golden Gate Estates, for ATV riders, Durrwachter said. If the Sabal Palm Road site doesn't pan out, the Big Cypress Basin might end up buying land somewhere else for ATVs or swapping land next to Lake Trafford in Immokalee, said Big Cypress Basin Director Clarence Tears, who has had a hand in negotiations over the roads. The basin plans to use the land next to the lake as a spoil site for muck to be dredged out of the lake as part of a restoration project. After that, it could be part of a swap. Tears called a swap a "worst-case scenario" and said he would prefer to preserve the spoil site as part of the state's Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, or CREW, project. ATV riders aren't the only people looking for a place to do their thing in Collier County. Swamp buggy enthusiasts also are pushing for trails in Southern Golden Gate Estates, said Jenkins, at the Collier Sportsmen and Conservation Club. Durrwachter said swamp buggy trails in Southern Golden Gate Estates are "not likely" but haven't been ruled out. "I'm not saying it's impossible," she said. Mudd said the commitment to finding 640 acres for ATVs was "no small change," but his eyes are on a different prize in the agreement. Follow the money Mudd said a takeover by the Big Cypress Basin of the county's secondary drainage system, something the agreement hints at, would be a "significant windfall." The county's drainage system has suffered from lack of spending for maintenance and construction, Mudd said. Controversy in 1991 over the size of a proposed tax to pay for drainage improvements left the county's system "eating crumbs off the county's budget table," Mudd said. The county's stormwater department has identified $4 million of canal maintenance projects west of Collier Boulevard that don't have money set aside for them and another $60 million of new drainage projects that need to be built around the county. Mudd said he is less impressed with the proposed $1 million annual contribution to Collier County as compensation for the roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates because the same taxpayers financially support both agencies. "It's like Collier County paying Collier County," Mudd said. Tears said he has the $1 million in his budget without taking it from other basin projects, thanks to his budget underestimating the rate of growth in the county's tax base. In any case, local taxpayers already are getting a good deal out of the restoration of Southern Golden Gate Estates, said former Collier County commissioner Pam Mac'Kie, now a deputy executive director for the Water Management District. The restoration's cost is being split 50/50 between the state and federal governments. Alternatives under consideration put the cost at between $60 million and $120 million. That doesn't include the $125 million in state and federal money that has been spent to buy 55,000 acres for the project. A $14.7 million First Phase, to plug the Prairie Canal and tear out roads on the project's eastern edge, could get started in October, project planners said. Collier County taxpayers, through the Big Cypress Basin, are set to pay $2.2 million for the project's first phase, according to 2004 budget figures. Mac'Kie said that after she took her job with the Water Management District she realized that the county has a "reputation for not partnering very well." Collier County's special status as its own basin within the South Florida Water Management District means county taxpayers don't pay a property tax that the district's 15 other counties pay for Everglades restoration. Mac'Kie also cited the county's failure to follow through on a $10 million pledge to buy public lands in CREW, which straddles the Collier-Lee county line. "This (the deal on the roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates) is a good opportunity to mend that," Mac'Kie said. http://www.naplesnews.com/03/07/naples/d941484a.htm -----Related Letter to the Editor The Other Side July 25, 2003 By Cindy Kemp Letter-writer Lynne Batson took the time to express her concerns about not being able to recreate in Southern Golden Gate Estates on the Fourth of July, citing "trespassing" according to two Department of Agriculture officers. The Naples Daily News ran a "Guest Commentary" column on Sunday, written by environmental groups promoting a speedy turnover of these roads to the state. Haste makes waste. Why the urgency to get this done? Could funding have anything to do with it, thus upsetting the plans to take more land from the people? Those who use these lands are true nature-lovers and respectful of the environment, yet they are being chased off the land. The planned rehydration to restore this environment, according to some biologists, will have opposite effects by creating non-compatible conditions for plants and other wildlife. Property owners in the southern blocks have had their property rights raped and investments pillaged. Don't let it continue. Too few realize the basis for all our rights are based on property rights. I am quite convinced that there are hundreds if not thousands of others like the Batsons who do not want to be locked out of public lands, but did not bother to speak up. Since the roads situation will be on Tuesday's County Commission agenda, I urge those with concerns to express them there. Don't be sorry later for not taking the time now to tell the commission your views. http://www.naplesnews.com/03/07/perspective/d950517a.htm Additional recommended reading: Florida Panther Habitat Preservation Plan (103 pages that really 'connect the dots' to The Wildlands Project -- and why SGGE roads must be closed in order to implement this depopulating/rewilding vast area, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in its eastern branch) http://www.panther.state.fl.us/pdfs/hab-preserve-plan.pdf This map is also of interest: |