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Heads up
Scripps celebration could be short-lived
By Times Staff Writer
Published September 19, 2005
A ceremonial groundbreaking for Scripps Research Institute's permanent Florida campus is scheduled for Friday, but supporters may have to put the champagne celebration on ice.
The development on a former orange grove known as Mecca Farms in western Palm Beach County is being challenged on three fronts by environmentalists who fear it will unlock the largely rural area to urban sprawl.
Lawyers representing the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and 1000 Friends of Florida have filed actions in state and federal courts. They are challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permitting construction on the Mecca site. They also have sued the state Department of Community Affairs and Palm Beach County for approving the project.
Oral arguments will not be heard in the Corps of Engineers' case until Sept. 26, with the other two cases coming to court in the fall. In the spring, Palm Beach County commissioners decided to proceed with construction despite legal threats. Site preparation has been under way for several months; construction of the three Scripps buildings planned for the property is expected to begin after the groundbreaking.
But rulings in favor of the environmentalists in any of the three cases threaten to halt construction and force the county and Scripps to consider an alternate site.
Neither a Scripps spokesman nor Palm Beach County's Scripps project manager returned phone calls about the groundbreaking, which will reportedly include Gov. Jeb Bush and Scripps president Richard Lerner turning gold-plated shovels.
San Diego-based Scripps, which agreed to expand to Florida in exchange for more than $500-million in state and county money, has 131 researchers and staff working at a temporary lab on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter. Construction of another temporary facility is expected to begin soon.
[Last modified September 16, 2005, 20:27:02]
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