TALLAHASSEE - Taxpayers deserve a better deal to protect 24,000 acres of South Florida wilderness, Gov. Jeb Bush and the chief financial officer told the state's top environmental regulator Thursday.
The blunt remarks amounted to a new set of marching orders for David Struhs, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. Struhs has been negotiating to pay $24-million to Lykes Bros. for the development rights to land the company owns along Fisheating Creek.
But critics say the proposal is too generous to Lykes because it would allow the Tampa company to subdivide the land into 22 farms and drill for water, oil and gas.
The deal has caused a rift among environmental groups. The Nature Conservancy helped negotiate the terms - and could earn a $100,000 fee - while Earthjustice complains that the proposed agreement wouldn't give taxpayers enough conservation for their money.
Under Florida's conservation easement program, the state pays landowners not to develop. That preserves open space without buying property. The Fisheating Creek deal is unusual because of its size.
Struhs told the governor and Cabinet that the proposal is "a true partnership" between the state and Lykes Bros., a cattle company with vast landholdings.
With the state positioned to pay top dollar for the site, Bush and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher said allowable uses for the site should be specified, with everything else prohibited. Struhs detailed only what would be prohibitted.
"We have a good chance of forgetting something like minerals or oil drilling," Gallagher told Struhs. "Put the exceptions back to the seller, so we can know exactly what they can do with the land."
Bush added: "In this negotiation, with such a large piece of property, it ought to be totally transparent. In other words, we ought to know what we get, and what they use the property for after we have an easement on it."
The 50-mile long Fisheating Creek meanders through Glades and Highlands counties and teems with wildlife, from bears to buzzards.
It is a remnant of an old Florida and is part of the delicate Everglades ecosystem that quenches the thirsts of millions of Floridians.
Bush called it "the last frontier."
David Guest, an environmental lawyer who represents Earthjustice and other groups, praised the Cabinet's action.
"The governor made very clear that in returning to negotiations, they needed to start all over again," Guest said. "Conservation lands should not be degraded by trying to use them for well fields."
Beth Waters, spokeswoman for Lykes Bros., said: "We don't know why an agreement that was negotiated by the Nature Conservancy and supported by nationally recognized conservation groups is being questioned to this extent. But we look forward to continuing the process with the state."
Throughout the 1990s, the state and Lykes Bros. battled in court over ownership of the creek after Lykes put up a barbed-wire fence and hired armed security guards to keep the public away.
Attorney General Bob Butterworth persuaded a Glades County jury to ensure public access to the creek, but Lykes sued. The two sides reached a settlement in 1999.
The first phase of the purchase came in 1999 when the state and Lykes agreed to convert about 18,000 acres into a state wildlife management area.
The latest deal was postponed from two Cabinet meetings in August and was withdrawn Thursday at Struh's request.
"I asked for it to be withdrawn because there were a number of questions that I had that were not adequately addressed," Struhs said. "It wasn't ripe yet."
Gallagher issued Struhs a challenge: "Let's see how good you can negotiate."
