Thirty-seven years ago this week, people in Broward County went to the polls and taxed themselves to protect swampland, trees and mangroves from bulldozers.
“If we don’t do it now, the land will be gone — for good,” said John Hart, then a member of the Broward County Commission. Hart was a driving force behind spending $75 million to protect 13 environmentally sensitive sites totaling about 400 acres.
The dollar amount was chosen arbitrarily based on what voters might accept, and some cynics saw it as a move by a pro-development commission to cozy up to environmentalists. Months earlier, the county passed a slew of land-use changes that vastly expanded suburban sprawl in southwest Broward, creating traffic nightmares that remain today.
Mangroves over warehouses
The voter turnout on March 14, 1989, wasn’t much — about 10%. The tax hike wasn’t much, either, about $15 a year for a typical homeowner with a homestead exemption. But it was a clear statement in favor of saving sensitive lands.
Decades later, one parcel on the county’s protected lands map is about 21 acres in Dania Beach, near the airport and Port Everglades. It has many mangroves — hardy, thirsty, water-absorbent and salt-resistant trees that are a natural buffer against sea-level rise and flooding. But a developer wants to build warehouses on part of the site.
Dania Beach said no. The Broward County Planning Council said no — and a unanimous County Commission said no, too.
Broward County
Cara Campbell of Fort Lauderdale urged county commissioners to save the mangroves in Dania Beach.
At the county hearing on March 3, dozens of people showed up to plead for protection of the mangroves.
It was inspiring to see so many fight to save part of what little is left of Broward’s natural habitat. Some voiced anger that they had to show up to ensure protection from man’s devastation — again.
” … Always the developers”
They included Cara Campbell of Fort Lauderdale, a 30-year Broward resident and president of the Ecology Party of Florida (remember that word, ecology?)
“I stopped coming to these meetings because it wasn’t worth my time,” Campbell told commissioners. “It was always the developers who got what they wanted … We need our mangroves. We need our wild areas.”
This time the people fought back, and won. It’s an encouraging sign.
County Commissioner Beam Furr led the charge to save the mangroves from becoming another drab row of mini-warehouses. On Facebook, Furr described hiking through the site.
“This area remains an essential part of our effort to prevent flooding, and should not be removed from the protected status it currently has,” Furr wrote. “It is important to note that all the surrounding parcels are owned by Broward County, and for good reason … We will need natural areas like this to collect water and keep our residents and businesses safe.”
A leader of the effort to save the mangroves, Brenda Lee Chalifour of Dania Beach, urged the county to preserve the mangroves in perpetuity, by purchasing the site or swapping it for land elsewhere.
“Choose resiliency over regret!” Chalifour said.
Despite the county’s vote, developer Shlomo Melloul can still apply for development permits from county, state and federal agencies to build warehouses, because the area is designated for commerce. A nearby site has been the sanctuary for a colony of African vervet monkeys since the late 1940s.
“They can vote whatever they want, but I have the right to get a permit,” Melloul told the Sun Sentinel.
The developer’s persistence is all the more reason why Broward County must also persist in saving these mangroves from the bulldozer. As with most fights to save South Florida’s natural environment, this one is far from over.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.