thedrifter
04-21-04, 06:09 AM
Disabled vet's home saved maybe
Former SEAL continues long fight with government over eminent domain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: April 20, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Sarah Foster
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A disabled Navy veteran, whose David-and-Goliath battle with the state of Florida to save his home is being closely followed by property-rights advocates across the country, won a brief reprieve when Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet postponed a final decision on whether to take his land by eminent domain as part of the $7.8 billion Everglades Restoration Project.
The 'hole in the doughnut'
Environmental groups and DEP officials claim Hardy's 160-acre inholding -- dubbed "the hole in the doughnut" -- is vital to the success of the restoration effort, and that the management of surrounding land and the acquisition is too important to be stalled any longer by a lone property owner. Florida Audubon and the Florida Wildlife Federation representatives present at the hearing declined an opportunity to testify Tuesday, but filed letters in support of beginning condemnation proceedings.
"The Federation appreciates the state of Florida's repeated attempts to negotiate a fair settlement with Mr. Hardy," wrote Nancy Payton, field coordinator for the Florida Wildlife Federation and a primary promoter of bond measures to fund increased government land purchases. "Despite the state's extraordinary efforts over the years, Mr. Hardy has made it very clear in his public statements that he is an unwilling seller."
But Hardy and his attorney, Bill Moore of Sarasota, and engineer Richard Thompson, of Lehigh Acres east of Fort Myers, insist the land is not vital to the project, in part because it is several miles north of the area to be flooded and will never be under water. The plan consists of building three new pump stations with spreader canals south of his property to draw water down from north of Interstate 75.
State engineers say water from the project might back-flood onto the Homestead, creating safety and liability headaches for the state of Florida.
continued....
Rather than voting to begin condemnation proceedings as expected, the three-member Cabinet last week gave the state Department of Environmental Protection two weeks to find a way that would allow Jesse Hardy, 68, to keep his property and at the same time continue the project without running up the cost or leaving the state open to liability.
The governor said he is "completely supportive" of the restoration project, but he urged the DEP to work with Hardy "to accommodate his desire to stay on his property and our needs to make sure that [the] solution is scientifically sound and doesn't cost us an arm-and-a-leg forever and ever" in legal fees and extra maintenance.
"If we can get some new thinking as it relates to the engineering, get consensus about some of this and costs can be looked at, I think we ought to try it one more time with a fresh approach," said Bush.
If the Cabinet eventually gives the go-ahead to seize the property, it would be the first time the state of Florida has used its power of eminent domain to take homesteaded land, so this is a precedent-setting case.
It was the third such reprieve for Hardy. The meeting was essentially a replay of proceedings last year when, in three separate hearings, the Cabinet discussed the issue of condemnation of his property. At the end of the third hearing in mid-March, both sides were ordered back to the table and told to find a mutually satisfactory solution. No deadline was set for completion of negotiations.
The deferral surprised parties on both side of the issue, especially the property rights advocates in the audience, many of whom had driven hundreds of miles from southern Florida to Tallahassee, the state capital, to speak on Hardy's behalf despite not being optimistic.
"I really felt this was the best thing we've seen so far," said Cindy Kemp, president of the Property Rights Action Committee in Naples, Fla. "It felt very positive."
As WorldNetDaily reported, Jesse Hardy, a 12-year Navy veteran and former SEAL, has lived since 1977 at the end of a dirt road in rural Collier County, in a simple wood-frame house he built himself on a 160-acre parcel he bought in 1976 for $60,000. The county refused to allow electricity to be provided to the area, so Hardy relies on propane and a gas-powered generator.
Since 1995 he has shared his home with long-time family friend Tara Hilton -- who moved in after her mother died -- and her son, Tommy, who is now eight.
"I've told Tommy I brought him and his mama here when he was just a little bitty baby so I could be a daddy to him," Hardy explains. "I promised Tara and her mama that they could always have a home with me and I'd be Tommy's daddy."
The homestead is about 15 miles east of Naples and less than two miles south of Interstate 75 that serves as the northern border of a 55,000-acre government buyout area called Southern Golden Gate Estates. The buyout area is connected to the massive Everglades Restoration Project, which covers most of southern Florida and is intended to restore natural water flows by deconstructing roads and plugging canals built by developers years ago. It requires the relocation of tens of thousands of people.
Project promoters say the SGGE section would provide water for the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Ten Thousand Islands and future drinking water for the city of Naples. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2006.
For Hardy, money is not the issue: he's rejected several offers each topping the other. The first was $712,000 in Oct. 2002. When he turned that down, $1.4 million was dangled before him, then $1.7 million. Just days before the hearing it was upped to $4.4 million. He still said no.
It's not that he's opposed to the project.
"If they think they can increase the water table out in this area it will be OK. If they want to rehydrate the Southern Golden Gates Estates, that would be fine," he says.
But Hardy has a definite idea of how his land could be used, one he says would complement and enhance the restoration, not hurt it. He has nearly completed a large pond (the first of four) for a fish farm and recreational fishing operation, a project approved by Collier County that granted him permits in 2001. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement: The county buys the excavated rock to build roads.
"[The first pond] is filled with water and there are fish there, and it looks real pretty," he told WorldNetDaily.
Hardy isn't alone in his enthusiasm for a fish farm. He says besides Collier County the state Department of Agriculture is in favor of the plan and would like to see the project up and running.
Fresh approach
For Hardy, a "fresh approach" might be to sell "flood rights" where the government buys an easement over a property and acquires the right to flood it at a later time. And it would be an arrangement where he's able to maintain an aquaculture and recreational fishing business, which shouldn't be too difficult with an endorsement from the Department of Agriculture.
But DEP officials will settle for nothing less than "fee simple" acquisition; that is, complete ownership with unrestricted rights over disposition.
Government attorney Bob Scanlon explained to the Cabinet that the state of Florida had acquired 19,000 parcels of land in the target area, some 1,858 of them through the filing of 300 lawsuits, always presenting the view that fee simple was "required."
"We acquired fee simple title in all those parcels," he boasted. "We've presented orders-of-taking over 300 times and always taken the position that we have to have fee simple. the judges in Collier County have given us fee simple for all 1,861 pieces of land."
"They were not willing sellers, even though they weren't homesteads," he added.
Wildlands Project
Columnist Henry Lamb has identified the restoration of the Everglades as a major component of the Wildlands Project, an ambitious environmentalist scheme to transform the United States by "rewilding" 50 percent of the land area of the lower 48 states to the condition it was before Europeans arrived. This means placing much of the land in government ownership; closing vast areas to human use, including farming; and concentrating the population in cities rather than small towns, farms and suburbs.
Funding a concept as grandiose as the Wildlands Project doesn't seem to be a problem. Florida had embarked on a land-buying binge even before 1999 when voters approved Florida Forever, a $3 billion, 10-year acquisition program. Most of the coveted properties in the SGGE area have been acquired using a carrot-and-stick strategy offering large sums of money for a property and threatening to use eminent domain against property owners who don't want to sell.
Recently the last holdout in the area besides Hardy capitulated, leaving him and the Miccosukee Indian Tribe that owns 800 acres in the area and is fighting condemnation of its property in court.
Although homesteaded land is generally exempt from condemnation, the Florida Forever program allows the government to use it if two good-faith offers to buy a piece of property have been made and rejected. However, to merit such action the land must be of such significant environmental importance that not owning it would hamper the management of other state-owned land.
That's what the argument between Hardy and the state is about.
Former SEAL continues long fight with government over eminent domain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: April 20, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Sarah Foster
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A disabled Navy veteran, whose David-and-Goliath battle with the state of Florida to save his home is being closely followed by property-rights advocates across the country, won a brief reprieve when Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet postponed a final decision on whether to take his land by eminent domain as part of the $7.8 billion Everglades Restoration Project.
The 'hole in the doughnut'
Environmental groups and DEP officials claim Hardy's 160-acre inholding -- dubbed "the hole in the doughnut" -- is vital to the success of the restoration effort, and that the management of surrounding land and the acquisition is too important to be stalled any longer by a lone property owner. Florida Audubon and the Florida Wildlife Federation representatives present at the hearing declined an opportunity to testify Tuesday, but filed letters in support of beginning condemnation proceedings.
"The Federation appreciates the state of Florida's repeated attempts to negotiate a fair settlement with Mr. Hardy," wrote Nancy Payton, field coordinator for the Florida Wildlife Federation and a primary promoter of bond measures to fund increased government land purchases. "Despite the state's extraordinary efforts over the years, Mr. Hardy has made it very clear in his public statements that he is an unwilling seller."
But Hardy and his attorney, Bill Moore of Sarasota, and engineer Richard Thompson, of Lehigh Acres east of Fort Myers, insist the land is not vital to the project, in part because it is several miles north of the area to be flooded and will never be under water. The plan consists of building three new pump stations with spreader canals south of his property to draw water down from north of Interstate 75.
State engineers say water from the project might back-flood onto the Homestead, creating safety and liability headaches for the state of Florida.
continued....
Rather than voting to begin condemnation proceedings as expected, the three-member Cabinet last week gave the state Department of Environmental Protection two weeks to find a way that would allow Jesse Hardy, 68, to keep his property and at the same time continue the project without running up the cost or leaving the state open to liability.
The governor said he is "completely supportive" of the restoration project, but he urged the DEP to work with Hardy "to accommodate his desire to stay on his property and our needs to make sure that [the] solution is scientifically sound and doesn't cost us an arm-and-a-leg forever and ever" in legal fees and extra maintenance.
"If we can get some new thinking as it relates to the engineering, get consensus about some of this and costs can be looked at, I think we ought to try it one more time with a fresh approach," said Bush.
If the Cabinet eventually gives the go-ahead to seize the property, it would be the first time the state of Florida has used its power of eminent domain to take homesteaded land, so this is a precedent-setting case.
It was the third such reprieve for Hardy. The meeting was essentially a replay of proceedings last year when, in three separate hearings, the Cabinet discussed the issue of condemnation of his property. At the end of the third hearing in mid-March, both sides were ordered back to the table and told to find a mutually satisfactory solution. No deadline was set for completion of negotiations.
The deferral surprised parties on both side of the issue, especially the property rights advocates in the audience, many of whom had driven hundreds of miles from southern Florida to Tallahassee, the state capital, to speak on Hardy's behalf despite not being optimistic.
"I really felt this was the best thing we've seen so far," said Cindy Kemp, president of the Property Rights Action Committee in Naples, Fla. "It felt very positive."
As WorldNetDaily reported, Jesse Hardy, a 12-year Navy veteran and former SEAL, has lived since 1977 at the end of a dirt road in rural Collier County, in a simple wood-frame house he built himself on a 160-acre parcel he bought in 1976 for $60,000. The county refused to allow electricity to be provided to the area, so Hardy relies on propane and a gas-powered generator.
Since 1995 he has shared his home with long-time family friend Tara Hilton -- who moved in after her mother died -- and her son, Tommy, who is now eight.
"I've told Tommy I brought him and his mama here when he was just a little bitty baby so I could be a daddy to him," Hardy explains. "I promised Tara and her mama that they could always have a home with me and I'd be Tommy's daddy."
The homestead is about 15 miles east of Naples and less than two miles south of Interstate 75 that serves as the northern border of a 55,000-acre government buyout area called Southern Golden Gate Estates. The buyout area is connected to the massive Everglades Restoration Project, which covers most of southern Florida and is intended to restore natural water flows by deconstructing roads and plugging canals built by developers years ago. It requires the relocation of tens of thousands of people.
Project promoters say the SGGE section would provide water for the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Ten Thousand Islands and future drinking water for the city of Naples. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2006.
For Hardy, money is not the issue: he's rejected several offers each topping the other. The first was $712,000 in Oct. 2002. When he turned that down, $1.4 million was dangled before him, then $1.7 million. Just days before the hearing it was upped to $4.4 million. He still said no.
It's not that he's opposed to the project.
"If they think they can increase the water table out in this area it will be OK. If they want to rehydrate the Southern Golden Gates Estates, that would be fine," he says.
But Hardy has a definite idea of how his land could be used, one he says would complement and enhance the restoration, not hurt it. He has nearly completed a large pond (the first of four) for a fish farm and recreational fishing operation, a project approved by Collier County that granted him permits in 2001. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement: The county buys the excavated rock to build roads.
"[The first pond] is filled with water and there are fish there, and it looks real pretty," he told WorldNetDaily.
Hardy isn't alone in his enthusiasm for a fish farm. He says besides Collier County the state Department of Agriculture is in favor of the plan and would like to see the project up and running.
Fresh approach
For Hardy, a "fresh approach" might be to sell "flood rights" where the government buys an easement over a property and acquires the right to flood it at a later time. And it would be an arrangement where he's able to maintain an aquaculture and recreational fishing business, which shouldn't be too difficult with an endorsement from the Department of Agriculture.
But DEP officials will settle for nothing less than "fee simple" acquisition; that is, complete ownership with unrestricted rights over disposition.
Government attorney Bob Scanlon explained to the Cabinet that the state of Florida had acquired 19,000 parcels of land in the target area, some 1,858 of them through the filing of 300 lawsuits, always presenting the view that fee simple was "required."
"We acquired fee simple title in all those parcels," he boasted. "We've presented orders-of-taking over 300 times and always taken the position that we have to have fee simple. the judges in Collier County have given us fee simple for all 1,861 pieces of land."
"They were not willing sellers, even though they weren't homesteads," he added.
Wildlands Project
Columnist Henry Lamb has identified the restoration of the Everglades as a major component of the Wildlands Project, an ambitious environmentalist scheme to transform the United States by "rewilding" 50 percent of the land area of the lower 48 states to the condition it was before Europeans arrived. This means placing much of the land in government ownership; closing vast areas to human use, including farming; and concentrating the population in cities rather than small towns, farms and suburbs.
Funding a concept as grandiose as the Wildlands Project doesn't seem to be a problem. Florida had embarked on a land-buying binge even before 1999 when voters approved Florida Forever, a $3 billion, 10-year acquisition program. Most of the coveted properties in the SGGE area have been acquired using a carrot-and-stick strategy offering large sums of money for a property and threatening to use eminent domain against property owners who don't want to sell.
Recently the last holdout in the area besides Hardy capitulated, leaving him and the Miccosukee Indian Tribe that owns 800 acres in the area and is fighting condemnation of its property in court.
Although homesteaded land is generally exempt from condemnation, the Florida Forever program allows the government to use it if two good-faith offers to buy a piece of property have been made and rejected. However, to merit such action the land must be of such significant environmental importance that not owning it would hamper the management of other state-owned land.
That's what the argument between Hardy and the state is about.