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House Leadership Eager To Bulldoze Natural Florida

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 28, 2009

Odds are good that the legislative lunacy passed by the state House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee last week won't make it into law.

But that doesn't make the scheme any less frightening. It reveals a House leadership contemptuous of natural resources and intent on implementing a special-interest agenda.

The measure would require the state to approve any request to destroy a wetland or permit a stormwater project as long as the application has been signed by "scientists, engineers, geologists, architects or other licensed professionals."

In other words, as long as the developer-paid consultant said it was OK to bulldoze a wetland, the state would have to comply.

It's an asinine idea, and the usually more judicious Senate is unlikely to go along. Gov. Charlie Crist, a thoughtful conservationist, probably would veto the legislation should the Legislature be foolish enough to adopt it.

Nevertheless, voters should be alarmed by what the measure reveals about House leadership.

Speaker Larry Cretul and his team seem to think sanctioning developers to do as they please will somehow brighten Florida's prospects.

They apparently believe further degrading Florida's already critically imperiled water resources will increase the state's appeal.

They should ask Tampa residents, who soon won't be able to water their yards with sprinkling systems because of water shortages, whether they think making it even easier to pave over the state's natural water storage and filtering system is wise.

Florida, after all, already has lost more than half its natural wetlands. And current law allows thousands more acres to be destroyed each year.

Giving a free pass to developers is not going to revive the state's growth-based economy, which national publications such as the New Yorker and the Atlantic have criticized as being little more than a Ponzi scheme that must be constantly fed by new development, regardless of the costs it ultimately generates for taxpayers.

But instead of trying to diversify the economy, develop an educated workforce that will attract top-flight businesses, and protect strained resources, the House wants to return to the anything-goes development days of the 1980s.

The assault on wetlands comes courtesy of Rep. Jimmy Patronis, a Panama City Republican. It is only one of a litany of measures progressing in the House that would knife environmental safeguards and growth controls.

Patronis' amendment to a larger bill essentially says as long as the developer's permit request is signed by a licensed professional, it supersedes state laws that protect public health, the environment and wildlife.

Should the state Department of Environmental Protection choose to challenge the permit, it would have to demonstrate with a preponderance of evidence why the permit shouldn't be granted. Current law requires the applicant to prove the project would not be harmful - the correct standard.

The lesson House leadership has learned from a financial meltdown caused in part by corporate recklessness, greed and corruption? Eliminate oversight.

Hillsborough Rep. Faye Culp voted against the amended bill, but Rep. Rich Glorioso of Plant City supported it.

Both Culp and Glorioso earlier backed another insidious bill passed by the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee that would eliminate Hillsborough's wetland protections, which are more rigorous than the state's.

Regardless of whether any of this mischief ultimately is adopted, voters should be wary of a House leadership that appears more interested in appeasing developers than building a vibrant economy or ensuring Florida's continued appeal.

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