Collier opposed to plan to create off-road vehicle park at former jetport site

Eric Staats

A Collier County review sides against a plan to create an outdoor recreation area at a former jetport site along the Collier-Dade county line.

The review cites environmental impacts from off-road vehicles, increased greenhouse gas emissions and lengthy travel times to the site in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

The bottom line: the county’s Environmental Advisory Council should recommend to county commissioners that they not transmit the proposal to the state Department of Community Affairs for a final say. The EAC is scheduled to meet Sept. 2.

In 1969, plans to build the massive jetport galvanized support across the nation for a fledgling Everglades conservation movement and led to the creation of the Big Cypress National Preserve.

Off-roaders and environmental groups have fought ever since, sometimes in court, over how much off-road vehicle (ORV) access the law that set up the preserve allows.

Miami-Dade County, which still owns almost 25,000 acres at the former jetport site, has filed a petition to designate 1,600 acres between the runway and U.S. 41 East as an off-roading destination with a visitor’s center, campgrounds, RV parking, fishing piers, an archery range, hiking trails and trails for all-terrain vehicles and off-highway motorcycles.

“If there are environmental concerns, we want to look at them very, very closely,” Miami-Dade park planning chief Joe Webb said Thursday.

All of the proposed uses would be allowed by the county’s growth plan — except the off-road vehicles, according to the county review.

The proposal would create the Dade-Collier Cypress Recreation Area within the conservation designation that is assigned to the land under the county’s growth plan.

The two do not mix, county reviewers wrote in their report to the EAC.

“Specifically, the proposed government-sponsored ORV usage is unlikely to lead to the conservation and maintenance of the natural resources of Collier County,” the review says.

Besides that, though, the recreation plan does not comply with a 2008 state law by inadequately addressing how it would discourage urban sprawl and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the county review.

The jetport site is a 50-plus mile drive from the nearest major urban areas, and the petition does not quantify the amount of greenhouse gas emissions off-roaders would generate at the site, the review says.

In its petition, Miami-Dade park planners say the recreation area won’t draw enough visitors to have a large impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Having a safe place for off-roaders to ride would offset harm from any increase in greenhouse gas emissions, they say.

Collier County reviewers suggest that off-road riders would come mostly from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and that ORV sites should be found closer to them.

The Miami-Dade proposal has gotten caught up in a long-running controversy over the South Florida Water Management District’s failed pledge to Collier County to find 640 acres for an ATV riding site.

The pledge was part of a 2003 deal by which Collier County turned over roads in southern Golden Gate Estates for an environmental restoration project.

Collier County commissioners have directed county attorneys to sue the district for not living up to the deal and directed Collier park planners to work with Miami-Dade on the jetport plans.

The thumbs-down from the county’s growth plan reviewers is not deterring Miami-Dade, special projects manager Kevin Asher said Thursday.

Asher called the county comments “rather tepid” and said his department has “no fear” that the county won’t ultimately send the plans on to the state.

“I think there’s been nothing that we’ve seen or heard that would suggest otherwise,” Asher said.

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Source: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/aug/20/collier-opposed-plan-create--road-vehicle-park-for/

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