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Gov. Crist: “hold the line” on urban sprawl

Development would roll back Everglades protection

This summer, Environment Florida teamed up with Progress Florida to deliver a sixty-foot long scroll of petition signatures to Gov. Charlie Crist at the state capitol. The signatures were from Floridians urging the governor to protect the Everglades from big developers and land speculators that proposed to move Miami-Dade County’s Urban Development Boundary further west into the Everglades — a move that would rollback more than 20 years of protection for the Everglades.

Environment Florida is a member of Hold the Line, a coalition of more than 140 organizations, businesses, homeowner groups and municipalities working to protect the Everglades by stopping proposals for more sprawling suburbs, strip malls and commercial development outside of Miami Dade’s Urban Development Boundary.   

In the 1980s, Miami-Dade County planners created the Urban Development Boundary to stop development that would disrupt natural water flows, harm wildlife with pollution run-off, and destroy the Everglades’ unique, species-rich wetlands. The intention was to direct development in a way that protects the Everglades and other areas that are vital for agriculture and natural habitat and that help to replenish our drinking water supply and control floods during major hurricanes.

A recent deal between the state of Florida and U.S. Sugar to purchase vast areas of land near Lake Okeechobee for Everglades restoration is good news. But two other proposals would put the Everglades at risk. The Miami-Dade County Commission recently voted in favor of several development proposals that would destroy vast tracts of the Everglades outside the boundary designed to protect them, including a big-box Lowe’s store and another retail center.  Even worse, Lennar Corp. is advancing another project that would pave wetlands outside the development boundary to make way for more than 6,000 new homes.

Gov. Crist and his Department of Community Affairs can stop these proposals by enforcing Miami-Dade’s Urban Development Boundary.  

This fall, Environment Florida is mobilizing Floridians on the streets, at their doors, through the media, and over the internet to urge Gov. Crist to continue his commitment to Everglades restoration by “holding the line” on development.  

Developers are pushing proposals that threaten the Everglades.