Seven years ago, the Legislature approved one of the most important environmental projects in South Florida history. A legal fight over it is raging, with much at stake.
That project is the reservoir in western Palm Beach County designed to receive water from Lake Okeechobee. That outlet will prevent damaging lake discharges to estuaries on both coasts. A separate treatment area will clean the water and send it farther south to replenish the Everglades.
Before the reservoir even starts operating in 2029 or 2030, however, Everglades sugar growers want first dibs on the water.
In 2021, the companies sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages water levels in the lake. Under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), they argued, the new supply of water should go to them.
Environmental and conservation advocates organized to fight the growers. The Palm Beach County-based Everglades Law Center filed a brief on their behalf. Each side asked for summary judgment—meaning they should win without a trial.
In March 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled for the Corps. The growers appealed. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals now must decide whether to grant oral arguments, which both sides have requested, or decline to take the case and let Middlebrooks’ ruling stand.
Having written about the Everglades for more than three decades, I agree with Middlebrooks’ comment that the “facts can be difficult to get,” given environmental law “jargon.” One of the many deeply technical terms in the litigation is “intervening non-CERP activity.” But here is the key issue:
In 2000, Congress approved the federal-state Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program, known as CERP. It includes 68 projects designed to protect and restore the roughly half of the original Everglades that remains.
The key change was that after decades of Big Sugar setting environmental policy in Florida, all new water supplies from those projects would go toward helping the entire system—not just farming. The growers contend, however, that they should be first in line for those new supplies.
In its brief, the Everglades Law Center writes, “Were this court to accept [the growers’] flawed interpretation of the law, the carefully crafted plan for Everglades restoration developed over decades…would serve instead primarily as an insurance policy for agricultural water supply before any restoration goals could be met.”
This litigation continues Big Sugar’s decades-long opposition to environmental regulations, such as the state’s 1994 Everglades Forever Act. Growers also have demanded that the Corps keep lake levels artificially high, which damages the lake environment, to make water available for irrigation. Growers lobbied to make the reservoir half as large as supporters had wanted, to keep as much farmland as possible in production.
Sending water south would protect wellfields, which supply public drinking water, from saltwater contamination as sea levels rise. Water quality throughout the system all the way to Florida Bay would improve, thus helping tourism.
If the growers win, the Everglades Law Center wrote, it would “eviscerate” the chance that the ambitious program to restore the Everglades could succeed. That statement is correct. I’ll have more as the case progresses.
No historic designations for Frog Alley and Atlantic Ave.
Delray Beach will not seek historic designations for Atlantic Avenue and Frog Alley.
This consensus among city commissioners, which emerged from Friday’s goal-setting session, is a fairly big deal. The city had discussed the idea for nearly a decade. A consultant had reviewed the target areas. Preservationists worried that development would change historic properties.
During their March campaigns, Mayor Tom Carney and commissioners Juli Casale and Thomas Markert said they opposed further encroachment by development into neighborhoods that already have historic designation. Carney said Friday, however, that he worried about imposing more “regulatory burdens” on property owners who finance so much of the city’s operating budget. Carney is a land-use lawyer. Only Casale and Markert pushed back.
“Stopping and starting” on this topic is “wasting time and money,” said Development Services Director Anthea Gianiottes. “We need to figure out where we want to go.” She added that there are “a lot of things in place now” to preserve historic character “where it is changing too much.”
Given the discussion, City Manager Terrence Moore said the commission will hold a workshop meeting in August on regulations short of a historic designation, which in some cities has made it very difficult to change historic properties. Given what they heard before the election, preservation hardliners may be disappointed in Carney.
Former PBC Democratic Party Chair to run for School Board
The Palm Beach County School Board District 5 race continues to be fluid.
On April 24, Brian Stenberg withdrew, just three weeks after he got in. Stenberg, who twice has run unsuccessfully for the Boca Raton City Council, gave no reason for dropping out. Five days earlier, Shannon Komorsky Scaglione also had withdrawn, citing “unforeseen circumstances.”
Then last Wednesday, Mindy Koch entered the race, increasing the field to five. That day, Koch had resigned as chairwoman of the county’s Democratic Party. In her resignation letter, Koch blamed the local party’s problems on a “subversive, cancerous element.”
Last month, State Chairwoman Nikki Fried suspended Koch. A panel of party officials then reinstated her. The local party has been in turmoil since its candidates did so badly in the 2022 elections.
School board races in Florida long have been non-partisan. More recently, however, they have taken a partisan turn, especially as Gov. DeSantis has singled out certain Republican candidates to endorse.
Obviously, Koch couldn’t hide her partisan leaning even if she wanted to. Already, though, she has endorsements from leading local Democrats.
Koch told me Monday that she taught in public schools for 41 years in three states, the last two decades of that being in Broward and Palm Beach County. Her children attended public schools in District 5, which includes Boca Raton and West Boca.
Citing the increasing support in Tallahassee for charter and voucher schools, Koch said the traditional public school system has been “the great equalizer” in society. “I want to ensure that that remains the focus.” Qualifying for the race takes place in June.
Yvette Drucker to run for Senate
Speaking of local politics, Boca Raton City Councilwoman Yvette Drucker is running for the Florida Senate in 2026.
Drucker filed paperwork last week. She joins State Rep. David Silvers in the Democratic primary for the seat held by Democrat Lori Berman, who is term-limited in two years. State Rep. Rick Roth is the only Republican to have filed. He and Silvers also are term-limited in 2026.
In March, Drucker won a second, three-year term on the council. She must resign to run, so the council would have to fill that vacancy before the 2027 election.
Despite the election being two years off, Drucker is entering comparatively late. Silvers filed last June and has raised $10,000, with $3,000 coming from Deerfield Beach-based JM Family Enterprises. Roth filed last December.
District 26 is one of the most sprawling in Florida. It includes parts of Boca Raton and West Boca, all of Delray Beach and West Delray and coastal areas north to Ocean Ridge. It then veers northwest to Wellington and the farm communities around Lake Okeechobee. Roth owns a farm in Belle Glade.
Delray to fill DDA board vacancy
Three weeks after removing a member of the Downtown Development Authority board, the Delray Beach City Commission will fill the vacancy.
That quick turnaround may explain why only two people have applied—a comparatively small pool for one of the city’s most high-profile volunteer positions. Both applicants are local Realtors—Damara Cohn and Robert Dockerty.
On her application, Cohn didn’t even list the DDA as her first choice. She ranked the Affordable Housing Advisory and Planning and Zoning Boards higher. Because the appointment to the housing board comes first on today’s agenda, Dockerty might be the only DDA candidate if the commission puts Cohn on the housing board.
Carney will make the appointment. He got support from the faction aligned with former Mayor Shelly Petrolia. The four-member board majority put in place a year ago by commissioners aligned against Petrolia tended to question previous DDA policies and staff decisions.
Rick Burgess, whom the commission removed because he lied on his application, was part of that new majority. If politics come into play, Carney’s choice could create a board majority less questioning of staff.
Boca Bash subjects identified
An investigation has identified two juveniles who tossed garbage into the ocean after leaving Boca Bash. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the information has gone to the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office to “determine suitable charges.”
