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County
OK's More Beach Funds Jan. 29, 2003 Elena Cabral and Joni James TALLAHASSEE - Broward County stubbornly moved forward Tuesday with its vision for beach restoration, even as the project hit a snag with state leaders. The County Commission unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to spend $7 million to restore underwater environments that would be affected by the $52 million plan to dredge sand from offshore for widening the beach. But a technical glitch kept the state Cabinet and Gov. Jeb Bush from authorizing another part of the plan. The delay, caused by an outdated state law, means Broward County will have to wait until at least late March to obtain state permission to dredge on submerged, offshore state land to refill beaches stretching 4.6 miles from Pompano Beach to North Fort Lauderdale. The Cabinet hopes by then that the Legislature, which convenes March 4 for its annual session, will have tweaked a state law that currently requires five Cabinet members to approve any proposals affecting state-owned lands. The problem: A constitutional amendment that went into effect earlier this month shrunk the state Cabinet from seven statewide election officials to only four. But even without the technical glitch, Bush and Cabinet members appeared reticent Tuesday -- after listening to nearly an hour of competing testimony -- to heartily embrace Broward's plan. Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs went so far as to recommend the Cabinet hold off on approving the dredge project for at least 18 months, until the state can analyze the impact of an initial stage of the county's renourishment plan, set to begin this summer, that will rebuild beaches from Port Everglades to Hallandale. The Cabinet never discussed Struhs' proposal, but didn't close the door to accepting it later. Rather, an exasperated Bush, with support of Cabinet members, urged the county to work with the DEP and environmentalists to tweak the plan before coming back in March. ''The same reasons you are here [testifying against the plan], is the same as those seeking to restore the beaches,'' he told a representative of the Association of Scuba Diving Instructors. ``It's economic.'' Broward's beach erosion administrator said he remains confident that the delay of the Cabinet's vote will not derail plans for the southern portion of the $52 million replenishment plan to begin this summer. But the project still needs a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies, and opponents plan to take their fight to those departments as well. ''This is not going to cause us a lot of problems,'' said Steve Higgins, the county's beach erosion administrator. ``What it means is we'll have to go back and work out a workable solution that everybody can live with.'' Environmentalists from the Sierra Club to the Green Party tried to persuade the County Commission to delay its vote Tuesday, saying the dredge and fill project and accompanying mitigation efforts will be devastating to coral, fish and turtle habitats. Higgins disputed the environmentalists' claims, saying the sensitive offshore reefs will not be damaged. A mitigation plan calls for nearly 12 miles of limestone boulders to be placed in waters near the coastline. |
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