02 Mar Wildlife chair blasted for plan involving his own land
Some urge Barreto to abandon for-profit move or resign his post
By Tony Doris
Courtesy of Palm Beach Post
Legal moves by Florida’s top wildlife official for the right to develop submerged land he owns in the Lake Worth Lagoon drew blistering criticism from two dozen people at a meeting Friday of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Several urged FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto, an influential lobbyist appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, to abandon his for-profit plans or resign.
The Palm Beach Post reported last week that a company led Coral Gables- based Barreto, Government Lot 1, LLC, has revived a 1990 lawsuit to expand its final order and allow it to dredge and fill its submerged land without requiring that it receive approvals from any Florida regulatory agency.
Barreto filed a plan in 2018 with the South Florida Water Management District to build mansions, a marina, private docks and hundreds of condos on a wildlife-filled habitat he owns on the northeastern corner of Singer Island. After the district in 2019 said the project would not win approval without extensive measures to mitigate environmental damage, Government Lot 1 withdrew the plan but now has moved in Palm Beach Circuit Court to eliminate the need for approvals from the district or any other state agency.
“It’s not just any part of the lagoon, it is absolutely the best part, in terms of its environment,” Lisa Interlandi, executive director of Everglades Law Center, told the FWC board, urging them to stop their chairman from moving forward. The expanse hosts the lagoon’s highest concentration of juvenile green seat turtles, as well as sea grass, manatees and fish, she said.
If Barreto wins the right to develop the site without the state being able to enforce its environmental laws, acres of land could be impacted across Florida, Interlandi added. “We have no idea how far that ripple might extend.”
Barreto dismissed the criticism. He has no current development plans, architects, engineers or shovel-ready projects and “no plans before any governmental body for approval,” he said after two dozen opponents and not a single supporter spoke out.
“Basically it’s much ado about nothing.”
Government Lot 1 bought the 19acre site in 2016 for $425,000. Only a thin sliver of it, several feet on the west side of A1A, is dry land. Winning the right to develop millions of dollars of luxury homes and a marina on the adjacent submerged land would make the property much more valuable – whether the company chose to develop or sell it to the state for conservation.
FWC Vice Chairman Michael Sole twice sought to cut off members of the public from speaking, saying the matter was not before the board or was verging on the personal. They countered that it was important for the board that one of its members was acting privately in a way that conflicted with his public duties.
The FWC should consider the matter, as it involves protecting mangroves, an estuary, fish, horseshoe crabs and other wildlife, Reinaldo Diaz, president of nonprofit Lake Worth Waterkeeper, told the board. “These properties are loaded with protected species,” he said.
If the sloping shoreline is lost to sea walls, he said, “you guys should know, we would lose important fisheries.”
Barreto’s plan detracts from the agency’s integrity, one Singer Island resident told the board. “It gives the impression of corruption that we have going on here.” She called on Barreto to either resign or drop his plans until he’s no longer on the organization.
Another resident, Matt Lynch, asked how the conservation agency could have a chairman seeking development plans for a marine nursery full of sea grass, smalltooth sawfish, manatees, green sea turtles and other wildlife that influence ecosystems up and down the Western Hemisphere. “I can’t believe we’ve got to fight you guys, the guys two are supposed to be protecting it.”
Other speakers told of fishing and kayaking in the lagoon and of tourists from around the world coming to dive off the nearby Blue Heron Bridge because of the lagoon life. “It’s one of the most beautiful places in all of Palm Beach County,” another Singer Island resident said.
Scott Zucker, president the The Audubon Society of The Everglades, told the board the abundance of fish in that part of the lagoon influences birdlife there. Eagles, ospreys and roseate spoonbills dive for fish there, he said. The Audubon Society leads field trips there to show visitors what a lagoon and estuary should look like. “This is the most pristine part of the lagoon in Palm Beach County,” he said.
Jaimie Hamilton The chairwoman of the Palm Beach County chapter of Surfrider Foundation also voiced opposition, as did Drew Martin of the Loxahatchee Group of the Sierra Club, and Shana Phelan, administrator of the Palm Beach County Diving Association.
“That may have been the way parts of Singer Island were developed in the past but we’ve learned a lot and don’t think it should be developed now,” Phelan said.
Sole, the FWC vice chair, backed Barreto’s statement that the public shouldn’t worry.
As former secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Sole said, he understood the matter in the context of a state that once filled a lot of submerged land. “I’ve dealt with numerous of those projects and made sure there was an appropriate solution for the property owner as well as a reasonable solution on behalf of the state of Florida. It’s a normal process,” he said.
“It’s complicated and some of these issues don’t get a lot of understanding by the public,” he said, adding that the lagoon will be protected in the end. “I don’t lose a lot of sleep on these.”