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The senator, criticized for a perceived conflict of interest, now says he is neutral on an airport near the Everglades.
By CRAIG PITTMAN and BILL ADAIR
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001
Bob Graham's reputation as a pro-environment politician is tied to the Everglades. In two terms as Florida's governor and three terms as a U.S. senator, Graham has pushed hard to restore the River of Grass. Environmental groups have usually figured they could count on the popular Democrat.
Except on one Everglades-related issue, that is.
When it comes to the fight over converting Homestead Air Force Base into a commercial airport next door to the Everglades, Don Chinquina of the Tropical Audubon Society said, "he's always been our biggest foe."
Environmental activists contend the Democratic senator has a personal reason for promoting a commercial airport at Homestead: He would rather have a noisy, polluting airport plopped down next to the Everglades than see one in his own backyard.
If Homestead gets no airport, some aviation experts say, the likely alternative for providing relief to busy Miami International Airport would be to increase traffic at the airport in Opa-locka. Compared to Homestead, "Opa-locka is the better choice" because it is closer to Miami, said Rick Elder, former director of Miami International.
The catch: The Opa-locka Airport lies next door to the community where Graham lives, Miami Lakes.
"Why would this green senator be supporting an airport between two national parks? The only thing we can figure is to protect the Miami Lakes development," Chinquina said.
Miami Lakes is more than just Graham's longtime home. It has been his springboard to financial security, and it has provided jobs for most of his relatives. Over the past 40 years the family-owned Graham Cos. has conjured up a community of homes and schools from 2,500 acres of scraggly pasture land originally owned by the senator's father. Some houses there now sell for $1-million.
The town, population 23,000, also generates rental income for the company from 1,500 apartments, plus office buildings, warehouses and retail space. Unlike developers who build to sell, Graham Cos. builds to own. About 100 acres remains undeveloped -- enough to keep the company busy for another decade, according to company president Bill Graham, the senator's nephew.
Company revenues last year were about $75-million, and the senator reported that the value of his shares in the family company were between $1-million and $5-million. Graham frequently attends the company's annual meetings and often uses its offices while in Miami Lakes. But since 1975 his older brother William has tended the senator's interest in the family business through a blind trust.
Graham contends the environmental groups who regard him as an enemy have him all wrong. He concedes he was once a strong supporter of putting an airport at Homestead, but says that "in light of all the controversy that has generated," he is now neutral. He says he will go along with whatever decision the secretary of the Air Force might make about the base, a decision expected this week.
But proponents of the Homestead airport still regard Graham as a staunch ally, one who they believe is even now lobbying the Clinton administration to approve their plans.
"He has absolutely been a supporter," Ramon Rasco, an attorney for Homestead Air Base Developers Inc., said last week.
Graham did say he is not in favor of making the Opa-locka Airport into a reliever for Miami International. But he denies that his position on either Homestead or Opa-locka is motivated by his personal and financial interest in Miami Lakes.
"First, I've been at this business for 35 years, representing the interests of the whole community," Graham said. "Second, I think, as I say, Opa-locka is not a viable option."
When it comes to Opa-locka, Graham's neighbors agree. Two Miami Lakes homeowners groups have hired an attorney to fight any expansion of the Opa-locka Airport. They would much prefer to see the airport business go to Homestead.
An expansion of Opa-locka would "be devastating to the ecology of our lakes and our quality of life," complained Bob Ruiz, president of the Lake Hilda Homeowners Association in Miami Lakes. "None of that noise or toxic waste would be good for our people, and our property values would go down, too."
Ruiz said he cannot understand why Miami Lakes residents should suffer just to protect the Everglades: "Why should the alligators take precedence over the human beings?"
In the late 1960s the 1,108-acre Opa-locka Airport was the busiest airport in the world. When Hurricane Andrew clobbered South Florida in 1992, then-President George Bush flew into Opa-locka Airport to inspect the damage.
One of the biggest victims of that devastating hurricane was 1,632-acre Homestead Air Force Base. Much of the base was flattened, wiping out a $500-million-a-year mainstay of the south Dade economy.
Bush promised to rebuild the base, but Congress refused to go along. So when Bill Clinton succeeded Bush, he promised to replace the lost jobs by converting the base to a commercial airport. Clinton administration officials boasted that the transfer of federal property to Miami-Dade County would become a model for redeveloping other closed military bases around the country.
Graham said he was a strong advocate of converting Homestead into an airport "right after Hurricane Andrew, like the president, like (then-Gov.) Lawton Chiles, like everybody else."
"With Homestead on its knees, we were advocating that it be quickly brought back into a use similar to that which it had served for 40 years, which was as an airport," Graham said.
Although Miami-Dade County had not yet taken ownership of the base from the Air Force, the county commissioners leased it to a company run by members of Miami's politically powerful Latin Builders Association. They have proposed an airport that by 2014 would see more than 200,000 planes a year -- more than double the number of Air Force flights from the base.
But environmental groups, with financial backing from wealthy Key Largo landowners worried about their property values, have mounted a stiff opposition to the Homestead airport proposal. They contend that noise and pollution from the airport would damage nearby Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park.
Alan Farago, then working for the Sierra Club in Miami, rallied the opposition in the early days. He tried then to enlist Graham in the fight against the airport, he said, but when he met with Graham aides, "I was treated as if I'd walked into a deep freeze."
A 1994 environmental impact statement gave the proposed airport a green light. But opponents lobbied the Air Force to conduct another study, arguing that the first report failed to assess the effects on wildlife and visitors to the nearby parks.
Graham opposed the new study, arguing that there would be little difference between the impact of a commercial airport and the impact that the base had. The Miami Herald quoted him as grumbling, "Seems to me, we've got a half-century of experience of what the environmental impact is."
Before Christmas 1997, the Air Force agreed to another study. Graham blasted the decision, declaring: "Florida received a lump of coal as its holiday present."
Graham aide Kim James said Graham's comments were not motivated by a desire to see Homestead converted to an airport -- although that was the way the Herald described his position at the time. Instead, she said, Graham's anger was focused on the delay involved in doing another study.
"Sen. Graham felt that was a disservice to the Homestead region, to leave the situation hanging," she said. "That's what he was upset about. He was upset that the process was going to drag the decision out further."
The supplemental study, released last month, said that with sufficient safeguards the new airport could be compatible with the national parks. Since the study came out Graham "has been asking the administration . . . to transfer the property to Dade County for the airport," said Rasco, the attorney for the Homestead developers. Graham denies doing any lobbying.
Graham's office recently sent out a letter touting the airport proposal as "a powerful economic engine that will provide the hundreds of jobs needed to revive and sustain the Homestead economy."
Environmentalists point to the letter as another sign Graham is working against them. James said it was an old form letter, from back before Graham changed to a neutral position, and was sent in error.
Then, during congressional debate last summer on the massive Everglades restoration plan, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, proposed an amendment requiring further studies on the proposed Homestead airport because it was "inconsistent with what we are trying to accomplish in the Everglades."
Graham and former Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., opposed the amendment because they said it would add an unnecessary step to redevelopment plans.
After the Voinovich amendment controversy, environmental activists met with Graham to talk to him about Homestead. They presented all the arguments against the airport. Graham told them he was neither for nor against it.
"He never actually responded to the environmental concerns," said Jonathan Ullman of the Sierra Club.
Environmental advocates say that the clearest signal of Graham's pro-airport sentiments is what he has not done: endorse the alternative to the airport.
The Collier-Hoover development group has proposed turning the old air base into an office park and retail complex, featuring a resort hotel, two golf courses, research facilities and a large aquarium.
That proposal has been endorsed by environmental advocates, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and newly elected U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
Airport opponents like Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson, whose district includes the Homestead area, say they have been disappointed that Graham has not joined the Collier-Hoover bandwagon.
"He's always been cordial," Sorenson said of Graham, "but he hasn't done what I want him to do: advocate for no airport."
While the decision on Homestead has been on hold, Miami-Dade officials have been working on alternatives. That includes beefing up Opa-locka, to the dismay of the Miami Lakes residents next door.
However, Graham said his concerns about the Opa-locka Airport are based on safety.
"The problem with Opa-locka as a commercial airport is proximity to Fort Lauderdale and Miami," he said. "If you look at a map, and lay down the flight patterns of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, they both intersect with Opa-locka."
The county signed airport leases with several companies. One company, part of a British transportation consortium, is led by Matthew Hudson, a University of Glasgow professor and onetime owner of Prestwick International Airport in Scotland.
He called Graham's safety concerns about Opa-locka "completely false."
Opa-locka serviced more than 117,000 takeoffs and landings in 1999, up more than 7 percent from the previous year, with no conflicts with other airports, he pointed out. He said Federal Aviation Administration officials have cleared Opa-locka to add another 300 commercial flights per day -- almost 110,000 additional commercial operations a year -- without a change in the flight paths.
Hudson said he understands the objections to Opa-locka's expansion. "Everybody who lives next to an airport doesn't want an airport," he said.
He called Graham "a powerful man," and acknowledged that Graham's family ownership in Miami Lakes could pose a problem for expanding Opa-locka.
"It's all politics, isn't it?" Hudson said. "I've become quite cynical about politics."
- Times staff writer Kris Hundley and researchers Caryn Baird, Cathy Wos and John Martin contributed to this report.
Airport idea does not fly (December 23, 2000)
Strange bedfellows join against airport (October 9, 2000)
Valuable Everglades effort (October 4, 2000)
Senate okays Everglades bill; tough House vote next (September 26, 2000)
Homestead airport plan stirs up protest (August 2, 2000)
Support for Homestead airport erodes (January 9, 2000)
Environment, economy clash in South Florida (August 15, 1999)