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DEEP DIVE: 25 years on, CERP is restoring the Everglades. Is it enough?

On Dec. 11, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan into law as part of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000. It included 68 engineering projects to “restore, preserve, and protect the south Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region, including water supply and flood protection.”

The suite of projects includes building storage reservoirs, creating flow ways, removing barriers to the natural sheet-flow of water south and restoring natural wetlands across 18,000 square miles in 18 counties.

Twenty-five years later, we’ve completed some of those projects; others are underway, and others still exist only as ideas on paper. We’ve made progress, but there are miles yet to go — and even on the day when we complete the last CERP project, work to restore the Everglades will need to continue.

We take a close look at where we stand on CERP, the progress made and the challenges ahead, in this week’s “Deep Dive” — click the button below.

READ MUCH MORE AT VOTEWATER.ORG

Big Sugar's favorite bill moving in House

Bad news: House Bill 433 is on the move in the Florida House.

Like its Senate companion, SB 290, HB 433 would expand Florida’s “food libel law" and let producers (like Big Sugar) sue over disparagement of non-perishable products (like sugar), and farming methods (like sugar cane burning). On Wednesday it passed the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee, despite the fact that dozens of Floridians spoke out against it, and the criticism came from all sides: Fishing guides, "MAHA moms," small-government advocates, First Amendment aficianados.

The subcommittee voted for it anyway, with members saying their role was to focus on budgetary matters, not policy implications; that will come at the next stop, when the bill is heard by the House State Affairs Committee.

The bill sponsors, Reps. Danny Alvarez and Chad Johnson, promised to work on Section 47 of the bill, which includes the "disparagement" clause. And Alvarez promised to implement changes "everyone will be really happy with."

We will see.

Meanwhile, some representatives on the subcommittee had the gall to upbraid some of those who testified for not removing their hats or showing sufficient "respect."

And then the bill passed unanimously.

HB 433 now goes to State Affairs; that committee does not have a meeting scheduled. We'll let you know when it is — but in the meantime...

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Call or email members of the House State Affairs Committee (here’s the list) and ask them to strike Section 47 of HB 433, which contains the "disparagement" provision, or if it's NOT removed, to vote NO on the bill.

VoteWater has something to say about Senator's pro-sprawl bills

Back in December we told you about the many pro-development bills filed by one Florida state Senator, Sen. Stan McClain, R-Ocala. One bill regarding “Blue Ribbon Projects” could allow developments of 10,000 acres or more to be approved without any public input. Another would create the “Florida Starter Homes Act” and restrict local governments’ ability to adequately regulate such developments, which could also be approved “administratively,” with zero public input.

That “zero public input” is a recurring theme with many of McClain’s bills. And the Senator and his legislation caught the eye of Politico Florida, which earlier this week published a story about McClain (paywalled), quoting VoteWater’s Gil Smart on the problems with these bills:

“Any time you cut citizens out of the process and tell local governments they can't do this or can't do that, or can't respond to the will of the local citizens, that's not smart growth," Smart said.”

Indeed, if these “Blue Ribbon Projects” and “Starter Home” developments are such good ideas — take them to the public. Let the people see and offer input. Any attempt to do otherwise is an attempt to disenfranchise Floridians, and should be voted down — or better yet, the bills should never be introduced in the first place.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Contact your state Senator or state Representative and ask them to vote against any bill that cuts the public out of the development approval process.

'Trump homes,' more sprawl and the effect on natural Florida

As we and others have noted this legislative session, there’s been a huge onslaught of pro-”sprawl” bills, most of which invoke “affordable housing.” That is, if we limit local governments ability to regulate new housing and shut citizens out of the approval process, building homes will be cheaper, and the savings will be passed on to homebuyers. Supposedly.

Indeed, “affordable housing” is invoked so often in this type of legislation that you begin to wonder if something is up. And maybe something is.

Earlier this week Bloomberg reported on “Trump Homes”:

Builders are working on a plan for a massive program to develop “Trump Homes” that would address the US affordability crisis while allowing private capital to deploy many billions of dollars.

Lennar Corp. and Taylor Morrison Home Corp. are among the firms that have worked on the proposal, which calls for builders to sell entry-level homes into a pathway-to-ownership program funded by private investors, according to people familiar with the plan….

The size of the program would ultimately depend on how many builders decide to participate, though a person involved in the plan said that builders have discussed aiming for as many as 1 million homes.

And they have to get built somewhere.

In Florida, this dovetails with legislative efforts to knock down barriers to building, which will definitely produce ever-more sprawl. In a new blog post at VoteWater.org, we look at the consequences, and ask whether the cost will be worth the benefit.