Stop the Sugar Hill Sector Plan
—- This is a letter that was sent to Gov. Scott in response of land use plan change (The Sugar Hill Sector Plan) recently proposed by Hendry County that would allow up to 18,000 homes and 25 million square feet of commercial and other uses in the very region that is essential to the ability of the state and federal government to resolve the crisis in the estuaries and restore the Everglades.
Residents and businesses on the east and west coast suffered economic havoc last summer because polluted water from Lake Okeechobee was dumped into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and estuaries.
The solution has been clear for decades water from Lake Okeechobee must be moved south to ease the burden on the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers and estuaries and to provide critical water supply to a parched Everglades National Park.
The state of Florida has a contract with U.S. Sugar to purchase 46,800 acres south of Lake Okeechobee that will expire in October 2015, and to purchase more than 100,000 additional acres before the rest of the contract options expire. These are the very lands required to stop the devastating pumping of massive volumes of water to the estuaries, and flow that water southward instead to restore the central and southern Everglades.
The South Florida Water Management District publicly stated that the potential acquisition of these lands “represents an unprecedented opportunity to protect and restore the Everglades in a way we never anticipated.” (8/14/2008). The District has developed several alternative plans for these restoration projects. As the Florida Supreme Court ruled in 2010, the U.S. Sugar purchase “serves the public purpose of conserving and protecting water and water-related resources.”
The opportunity to secure and use these lands for water storage and flow -the only realistic option for real restoration success- is threatened by a land use plan change (The Sugar Hill Sector Plan) recently proposed by Hendry County for over 43,000 acres owned by U.S. Sugar and Hilliard Brothers that would allow up to 18,000 homes and 25 million square feet of commercial and other uses in the very region that is essential to the ability of the state and federal government to resolve the crisis in the estuaries and restore the Everglades.
Approval of this Sector Plan could end any realistic chance of doing this either directly by allowing the approval of development that would preclude restoration, or indirectly by increasing the speculative market value of the lands needed for restoration. The proposed Sector Plan appears inconsistent with numerous requirements of Florida’s land use planning law, as a result of its failure to acknowledge state’s restoration efforts, and the suitability of this land for development relative to drainage, water management, water supply and other issues.
We, the 46 undersigned organizations, call upon the leadership of the Governor’s Office to ensure that the Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District fulfill their responsibility under state planning law to formally inform the state’s land planning agency (The Department of Economic Opportunity, DEO) in writing of the facts and circumstances mentioned above related to these lands. The agencies should provide DEO all available information about these facts, characteristics and considerations, and provide a full and frank explanation about the potential of the proposed Sector Plan to jeopardize the last realistic chance to fully restore the estuaries and the Everglades. We believe this information will compel DEO to formally object to the Sector Plan because of its adverse effect on an issue and facility of statewide importance the Florida Everglades and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and the flood control, water supply and economic functions they provide to nearly 8 million Floridians and millions of tourist and visitors. Allowing the Sugar Hill development to proceed would put the Everglades and coastal communities in grave peril.
Now is the time for the state of Florida to fully enforce its legal responsibilities and rights on their behalf before it’s too late.
Frank Jackalone, Florida Staff Director Sierra Club; Marty Baum, Executive Director, Keeper Indian Riverkeeper; Mark D. Perry, Executive Director Florida Oceanographic Society; Donna Melzer, Chair Martin County Conservation Alliance; Rae Ann Wessel, Natural Resource Policy Director, Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation; Dr. Leesa Souto, Executive Director, Marine Resources Council; Alan Fritze, President, Landings Fishing Club; Birgit P. Miller, Executive Director, Ding Darling Wildlife Society;
John McCabe, President, Ding Darling Wildlife Society; Rodney Smith, President, Anglers for Conservation; Eric Eikenberg, CEO, The Everglades Foundation; Manley Fuller, President, Florida Wildlife Federation; Franklin Adams, Board Member, Florida Wildlife Federation; Alan Farago, President, Friends of the Everglades; John Adornato III, Sun Coast Regional Director, National Parks Conservation Association; Roy Rogers, Board Member, 1000 Friends of Florida; Charles Pattison, Policy Director, 1000 Friends of Florida; Kathleen E. Aterno, Florida Director, Clean Water Action; Eric Draper, Executive Director, Audubon Florida; Michael F. Chenoweth, President, Florida Division of the Izaak Walton League of America & Florida Keys Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America; Sara Fain, Executive Director, Everglades Law Center; Laurie Macdonald, Florida Director, Defenders of Wildlife; Bradford Sewell, Esq., Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council; Millard McCleary, Executive Program Director, Reef Relief; Jennifer Rubiello, Field Organizer, Environment Florida; Paton White, President, Audubon of the Everglades; Grant Campbell, Director of Wildlife Policy/ Conservation Chair, South Florida Audubon Society; Alisa Coe, Staff Attorney, Earthjustice; Karen Ahlers, Executive Director, Florida Defenders of the Environment; Craig Diamond, Greater Everglades Chair, Sierra Club Florida Chapter; Liz Donley, Secretary Save Our Creeks, Inc.; Barbara Falsey, Vice President, Urban Environment League; Patty Whitehead, Secretary, Responsible Growth Management Coalition of Southwest Florida; John Debus, President, Treasure Coast Progressive Alliance; Justin Bloom, Exec Director, Suncoast Waterkeeper; Clayton Louis Ferrara, Executive Director, IDEAS for Us; Kenny Hinkle, Jr., President, BullSugar.org; John W. Scott, Leader/Co-Founder, Clean Water Initiative of Florida; Christopher T. Byrd, Esq., President, The Byrd Law Group, P.A.; Karen Fraley, Owner, Around the Bend Nature Tours; Linda Young, Executive Director, Florida Clean Water Network; Bob Skinner, President, Izaak Walton League Mango Chapter; Pamela Pierce, President, Izaak Walton League Cypress Chapter; Marcia Cravens, Chair, Sierra Club Calusa Group Glades, Hendry, Collier and Lee counties; Drew Martin, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties; Deborah Longman-Marien, Chai,r Sierra Club Turtle Coast Group Brevard and Indian River counties; Stephen Mahoney, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club Miami Group; Marian Ryan, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club Ancient Islands Group De Soto, Hardee, Highlands, Polk, and Sumter counties; Stan Pannaman, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club Broward Group; and Linda Jones, Chair, Sierra Club Manatee-Sarasota Group