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Talk of the bay

Judge: Scripps can build, but without roads, utilities

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published November 14, 2005

Two years ago, Scripps Research Institute seemed on the fast track to a Florida presence, greased by more than a half-billion dollars in public funds and a big push from Gov. Jeb Bush, who called the California research powerhouse the best thing to hit the state since air conditioning.

But Scripps' choice of a former orange grove in western Palm Beach County for its Florida campus has led to a raft of lawsuits from antisprawl and environmental forces. Last week, a federal judge in Miami threw a major monkey wrench into the Scripps project.

Ruling on a lawsuit by the Sierra Club and the Florida Wildlife Federation against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said Scripps could continue construction of its buildings on a 44-acre section of the 1,920-acre site. But the county is not allowed to develop roads, sewer, water or power lines on the remainder of the site until the Corps has completed an "adequate environmental review." That could take two years.

So Scripps can open up its labs. But scientists will have to hike in. And they'll be without utilities when they arrive. Think post-hurricane conditions, all the time. Hardly the environment for world-class scientific research.

[Last modified November 11, 2005, 21:46:03]