Florida land bill gets late changes
Lodges, stilt homes can stay

By Lesley Clark
Herald Capital Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- A last minute change slipped into the state’s billion-dollar land-buying program gives dozen of privately owned remote hunting lodges in Broward Everglades a 20-year lease on life.

And a second little-noticed change to the "Florida Forever" bill gives a lifelong reprieve to historic stilt houses in Florida – except for the Stiltsville seven in federally owned Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade.

The changes are courtesy of a South Florida sugar lobbyist acting on behalf of a politically powerful Palm Beach County rancher/developer and Sen. John Laurent, R-Barrow, the owner of a stilt house on Florida’s West Coast.

The changes to the bill that extends Preservation 2000, the state’s popular land-buying program, were added during the frenzied closing moments of the legislative session and received no public hearing.

Lobbyist for environmental groups saw the amendments only hours before the full House and Senate were to vote on the measure and scurried to make them acceptable to their interests.

"It’s not great, but we had to think in terms of getting an important bill passed," Florida Audubon Society lobbyist Eva Armstrong said. "We had to measure levels of importance."

"The original proposal would have grandfathered every illegal dock, pier and fishing cabin in the state," said David Gluckman of the Florida Wildlife Federation.

Instead, what passed the legislature is a provision that grants 20-year, renewable leases to weekend camps and lodges built – legally and illegally – over the years in two South Florida Water Management District conservation areas in the Everglades: one west of Coral Springs and Parkland and second west of Pembroke Pines and Weston.

Lobbyist helps a friend

The provision was pushed by David Golden, a lobbyist for the West Palm Beach-based Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. Golden said he didn’t get paid for the work and that he did it as a favor for his friend, dairy rancher Billy Bowman, who wanted to help a friend with a stilt house in the Everglades.

Bowman could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Goodlett’s original proposal would have preserved any structure on state land over nontidal water. He said he wrote it broadly because he feared naming the South Florida water conservation district would lead to charges that Big sugars was involved.

"I figured it would be less controversial, " Goodlett said.

Gluckman worked with him to narrow the language of the bill to only cover structures in the two water conservation areas.

The owners of the 1950’s, are worried about losing the structures to conservation measures, Goodlett said.

That was unlikely, water management district officials said.

The structures are so deep into the swamp that they are accessible only by airboat and removing them would likely be more trouble than it’s worth, they said.

"I can’t say we’ve had a problem with them," said Mike Slayton, deputy director of the South Florida Water Management District.

But state biologist noted that many of the homes are built on "tree islands," which are only now being recognized for their importance as wildlife habitat.

Under the bill, the owners will have to register with the district and pay a still-undetermined fee for a 20-year lease, which can be extended, unless the district finds the house is harming the environment. House not listed by Jan. 1 would be considered illegal and could be removed. No new structures could be built without a permit from the water district or the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Although tolerant of the houses, the water district wouldn’t issue a building permit for a new one, said Chuck Rinaldi, deputy director of construction and land management for the water district.

No new building

"This put an end to [new construction] and gives us some leverage to take them down if we need to," Rinaldi said.

The 17 stilts homes on Florida’s West Coast – like those in Stiltsville -- were in danger of being removed. Leases for most of the stilt houses in Charlotte, Lee and Pasco counties expire in July and DEP wanted to take them down.

"We didn’t see any good reason why they should continue to have these private structures over public water," said Peter Malison, Director of Deep’s division of state lands.

But because some of the homes had never been issued leases, the state agency successfully recommended to Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet – which serve as trustees of public lands – that all the stilt homes be given a 20-year reprieve before being removed.

The amendment, however, gives them a lifelong lease.

"Now they have the right to be there forever," Mallison said.

But Mallison said the bill won’t save the Stiltsville cottages because the park is federally ownd.

The bill still needs Bush’s signature before it can become law.