Jeb Bush, Cabinet seek to change designation of Big Cypress (protections at risk)

[seafan]

We'd best keep our eyes on li'l Jebbie until January 2 is here, because he will try to get away with as much as he possibly can to benefit his developer buddies before then, at our expense.


Bush, Cabinet seek to change designation of Big Cypress

By Eric Staats
November 19, 2006


Area of Critical State Concern designation was put in place in 1973

Nothing was more controversial in Collier County in 1973 than Florida’s efforts to enact environmental protection rules across hundreds of thousands of the county’s most remote acres.
Decades later, state growth regulators who are considering wiping the Big Cypress Area of Critical State Concern off the map have a fight on their hands to keep the rules in place.
In a report Friday to Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet, state Department of Community Affairs Secretary Thaddeus Cohen recommended starting the process of dropping the Area of Critical State Concern and leaving the job of environmental protection to the county’s landmark 2002 growth plan.

The idea could come up for a Cabinet vote as early as Dec. 5.

Collier County commissioners are set to vote on a recommendation Nov. 28.

snip

As high-profile as the debate was to create the Area of Critical State Concern — in itself a landmark achievement in the history of Florida growth controls — it came as a surprise to environmental advocates and landowners alike when word of its possible demise filtered down from Tallahassee in early November.
Since then, environmental groups have put their lawyers to work to try to save the Area of Critical State Concern and advocates are calling and paying visits to Cabinet aides to lobby their cause.
Jennifer Hecker, Conservancy of Southwest Florida natural resources policy manager, said the timing of the proposal to remove the Area of Critical State Concern, as Bush prepares to leave office, “is more than a coincidence.”
“We feel these resources continue to be of the utmost importance ... and continue to deserve the protections offered by the ACSC designation,” she said.

snip

The proposal to remove the designation comes as eastern Collier County is under unprecedented development pressure.
Collier Enterprises has proposed building a new town east of Golden Gate Estates called Big Cypress. Barron Collier Cos. is a partner in the development of the new town of Ave Maria to the east of Big Cypress.

snip

The Area of Critical State Concern covers some 830,000 acres, much of which has been put in public hands at the Big Cypress National Preserve, the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
--snip
Florida Wildlife Federation field representative Nancy Payton said environmental groups are mounting a “full-court press” to keep a vote off the Cabinet’s agenda.
“We just don’t understand what’s the rush,” Payton said. “What’s the hurry?”

[seasat]

1. There's also oil in Big Cypress.

Jeb originally was in a stink over this because the Colliers were planning on expanding oil production (LINK). They had basically used the threat to force the state to buy up the property at exorbitant rates (LINK). Now after buying it and giving the Colliers millions, they're proposing opening up the land to development? There should be a huge outcry from the public over this ripoff.

I don't think Chameleon Charlie is going to be better on this issue than Jebbie if it is tabled until he takes power. He was the lone dissenter in a vote to ban fishing in an area around the Dry Tortugas. Jebbie, Gallagher, and Bronson all voted for the ban in a cabinet meeting (LINK). Crist is to the right of Jebbie on an environmental issue with broad support and I find that pretty frightening for what to expect from him.