Power plant proposed in Florida panther habitat
By David Fleshler
Tue May 17, 11:45PM
A large power plant with smokestacks up to 150 feet high has been proposed for a patch of Florida panther habitat south of Lake Okeechobee, setting up what is likely to be a bitter fight with environmentalists.
Eddie Garcia, a Palm Beach Gardens developer who has built shopping centers, residential communities and other projects in Florida and Virginia, has obtained preliminary approval to rezone 3,127 acres for a combined solar and natural gas plant in southeastern Hendry County. He is in discussions with Florida Power & Light Co. to build and operate the plant.
The proposed Hendry Next Generation Clean Energy Center would consist of three natural gas units, with a total of nine smokestacks, as well as a field of solar panels covering up to 2,000 acres, according to the rezoning application from Garcia's company, McDaniel Reserve Realty Holdings. The plant would be capable of generating more than 3,750 megawatts of electricity, about three times the capacity of FPL's plant at Port Everglades.
The power plant would be constructed on ranch lands between Lake Okeechobee and the Big Cypress National Preserve, a strip of territory considered vital to the Florida panther and vulnerable to development. Other endangered or threatened species that use the site include the Audubon's crested caracara, the eastern indigo snake and the wood stork, according to a letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the company.
Although word of the proposal is just coming out, it has already generated opposition among environmental groups, including Everglades Earth First! and the South Florida Wildlands Association.
"We have grave concerns about the project and will oppose it," said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association.
Panther habitat is shrinking, he said, and a power plant would further reduce their territory.
"They're just being geographically squeezed," he said.
The developer, aware that a power plant in that area could be controversial, has been courting environmentalists, setting up meetings to explain the project and try to win support.
The Florida Wildlife Federation has tentatively endorsed the project. Manley Fuller, the group's president, said the plant would go on land that had already been cleared for agriculture, with the company agreeing to buy and protect adjacent panther habitat as mitigation for the loss of habitat to the plan. He said the group is not offering a "full-throated endorsement" and will watch the company's plans and file comments with government agencies on its application.
"If we had our druthers it would all be part of the national wildlife refuge and it would be restored, but there's not a lot of money to do that," he said. "They have committed to doing a number of conservation easements as part of the project."
Henry Dean, former executive director of the South Florida Water Management District and a consultant for Garcia's company, defended the decision to locate the plant in panther habitat, saying the company would compensate by protecting more than 3,500 acres of nearby panther habitat with a perpetual conservation easement, permanently preventing it from being developed.
"We're really doing everything we can to accommodate panther habitat," he said. "We certainly want to protect the panther and we also know it's the law. For every acre being removed from panther habitat, we're protecting two and a half acres from development. I don't know how much more can be expected of an applicant."
However, he acknowledged that since the acres to be set aside are already panther habitat, the panther is losing, not gaining total acreage. But he said the panther would benefit by having the land protected permanently from development.
Garcia, 85, a World War II Navy veteran, founded an electrical contracting firm in 1950 in Virginia Beach that grew into a major group of real estate development and management companies. The ESG Cos., which has many subsidiaries, has built office buildings, shopping centers and residential communities in Virginia, Boynton Beach, North Palm Beach and many other communities.
The Hendry County Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the rezoning, which has already received preliminary approval from the county's planning and zoning board. The project would also need an extensive set of approvals from state and federal agencies, including the Florida Public Service Commission, South Florida Water Management District and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
FPL spokesman Neil Nissan said the company is working with Garcia and has not yet made a decision on whether to pursue the project.
Garcia's company estimates that construction of the gas portion will generate 1,100-1,300 jobs and construction of the solar part will add 500 jobs. About 100 permanent jobs would be generated by plant operations.
