September 10, 2014
Office of Governor Rick Scott
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
RE: Sugar Hill Sector Plan
Dear Governor Scott,
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.