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Will Tide Turn For Myakka River Protection?

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By BILL HUTCHINSON, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: October 15, 2007

The nearly 40-year effort to guarantee a wild and scenic future for the Myakka River resumes this week.

Public hearings are set on plans to extend existing state protection from Sarasota to Manatee and Charlotte counties, both of which have resisted such moves in the past.

Typically for conflicts over environmental protection, the dividing issue is property rights. Residential and commercial landowners on and near the shallow, scenic 66-mile river fear that any state protection automatically means regulation.

In the case of the 'Wild and Scenic River' designation the Legislature granted in 1985 to the 34-mile midsection of the Myakka, the title comes with little in the way of regulation not already covered by state and federal statutes.

But, as has been demonstrated in Sarasota County, the 'Wild and Scenic' designation can become an intermediate step to more aggressive protections, and that is enough to rekindle old opposition.

'I expect it to be a squeeze, but I think the juice is worth the effort,' said state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, one of the sponsors of legislation that could effectively double the length of the portion under special state stewardship.

'If you're going to provide meaningful protection for a river, you have to protect the river, not just a piece of it,' said state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota, who first proposed expanded protection in the House in 2006 and then enlisted Bennett's support.

Farmers, Developers Protest

A moss-hung Old Florida waterway that nourishes an unusually rich diversity of plant, animal and bird life, the Myakka was considered for a place on the first national list of 'Wild and Scenic Rivers' in 1968.

But a federal evaluation committee shied away because of opposition in all three counties, especially the farmers, ranchers, developers and phosphate miners of Manatee, who feared that the protected designation would encroach on their property rights.

In 1985, after a generation of failed attempts to get some special protection for the Myakka, then-Sen. Bob Johnson, R-Sarasota, managed to push through a 'Wild and Scenic River' bill by restricting its coverage to the Sarasota County length of the river.

Even into the 21st century, subsequent attempts to bring Manatee County into the 'Wild and Scenic' fold met with continued resistance.

Although those concerns still exist, some longtime river partisans see evidence of a softening in traditional resistance.

'We've had pretty good support in Manatee County thus far,' said Jono Miller, chairman of the advisory body created by the Legislature in 1986 to oversee management of the 'Wild and Scenic' Myakka.

The current county commission has endorsed the Fitzgerald-Bennett effort to extend protection northward.

And phosphate interests have indicated a willingness to at least discuss how they would be affected by an expansion of the protection zone.

'I think they would like to be in a position to support it,' said Miller, who has met with executives at Mosaic, the phosphate producer with processing facilities on one of the Myakka's principal feeder streams.

'I am optimistic,' he said.

So is Bennett, who nonetheless anticipates 'a lot of opposition' to surface at either end of the Myakka.

'The important thing is to keep talking. That's what we hope happens out of these hearings: Sit down, tell me your concerns and let's see what we can all do to work things out.'

Bennett's support for extending protections of the Myakka is especially significant because he is not usually associated with environmental causes.

He has supported a move to remove the manatee from the state's endangered species list, and dismisses an antigrowth mentality he characterizes as 'Bananas - build absolutely nothing almost nowhere anytime soon.'

Expanding protection of the Myakka, he said, is a reasonable goal that can be accomplished while accommodating private property rights. 'In this case,' he said, 'I believe we can have it both ways.'

Ironically, opposition to the 'Wild and Scenic' designation has risen to the south as it may have declined to the north.

Vehement Opposition

Charlotte County bowed out of the Wild and Scenic campaign originally because so much riverfront land had been platted into small lots with individual owners that county administrators were daunted by the task of tracking each down.

Twenty years later, much of the land along the Charlotte expanse of the river has been acquired by the state or other public entities.

But two homeowners associations in particular have registered vehement opposition to bringing protection into their area.

'If you folks in Sarasota want to do all that, fine,' says Dennis Curtis, president of the South Gulf Cove Homeowners Association. 'But leave us out of it.'

Along with its sister association in nearby Gulf Cove, Curtis' group dominated a town meeting on the Fitzgerald-Bennett initiative held last June by state Rep. Mike Grant.

'We just don't see the need for it,' said Curtis. 'One more layer of bureaucracy to tell us what we can and cannot do - no thanks.'

Specifically, Curtis and his boater neighbors are concerned that extending the designation will mean extending the no-wake zone along the Myakka, which ends at the U.S. 41 bridge, and eventual restrictions on building and repairing docks.

'I respect the people and their opinions,' Fitzgerald said, 'but I have to respectfully submit that in this case they are misinformed.'

In any case, he sees the endorsement of Manatee County as crucial.

'If the people of Charlotte County absolutely don't want this to happen, then we can simply exclude Charlotte County, which I think would be a mistake, but the Manatee portion is more important.'

'Manatee,' agreed Bennett, 'is the key.'

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