Split Oak isn’t complicated. It’s about whether lying is OK.
Today we’re gonna cover several topics — throuples, lawsuits over football and the political takeover of a theme park — you know, everyday Florida stuff.
But first I want to start by simplifying something that may seem more complicated than it actually is: Split Oak Forest.
You’ve probably read a lot about the proposal to run a toll road through an environmental preserve, including comments that try to portray this controversial plan as some sort of complex debate. It’s not. It’s painfully simple. It’s about whether it’s OK to lie.
See, Split Oak isn’t some random swath of land that a bunch of tree-huggers thought it’d be nice to protect. Its 1,700 acres of natural land straddling the Orange and Osceola county line was purchased specifically with the promise that it would be forever protected.
That promise was made in exchange for letting developers destroy natural lands elsewhere. As the Sentinel wrote in 1995: “Historically, developers have had to dig up gopher tortoises and move them to safer habitat. Now, developers can get permission … to wipe out gopher tortoises as long as they contribute to the protection of Split Oak Forest, where a number of gopher tortoises reside.”
It was an explicit mitigation deal. Developers could destroy green space and animal habitats as long as they helped pay to forever preserve land elsewhere. Yet now some local officials want to pave over that.
If they do so, it means you were lied to. The whole thing becomes one giant con.
Interestingly, one of the development projects from the 1990s where officials were fouling land in exchange for swearing to forever protect Split Oak was a previous expansion of the Orange County Convention Center. It’s the quintessential Florida story: Tourism promotion and developer convenience at any cost, even promise-breaking.
Osceola County commissioners are pushing for the betrayal. Orange County commissioners have reversed course and say this multi-million-dollar preservation promise should be kept. The decision now goes to a Fish and Wildlife board largely controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson went before wildlife officials this week calling this proposal what it is — a shell game. If it’s allowed, it means a promise is never a promise.
It means developers can destroy lands anywhere they want as long as they vow to help protect land elsewhere, knowing that land can later be destroyed as well.
“God isn’t creating any more land,” Wilson said. She’s right, of course. We’ll soon see if any of these folks care.
Secretive transparency
There’s so much controversy oozing out of DeSantis’ new Disney governmental-control board that it’s hard to keep up. But in case you missed it, Sentinel reporter Skyler Swisher had a story over the weekend that encapsulated just how hot this mess is.
The story revealed that the district has hired a new politically connected PR firm to field questions about all the messes the district is making. But here’s the shotchaser combo from the gang that can’t shoot straight:
Shot: The district claimed the firm was hired — with tax dollars, mind you — to help “enhance transparency.”
Chaser : Neither the district nor the new firm would reveal how many tax dollars it was paying for those services. Transparent indeed.
Selective removals
State Attorney Monique Worrell went before the Supreme Court Wednesday, trying to get her job back while Republican Party of Florida Chairman Christian Ziegler is defiantly remaining in his.
Talk about a juxtaposition. DeSantis, as you may recall, removed Worrell from office even though she hadn’t been accused of any crimes. Meanwhile, Ziegler — who’s facing sexual-battery accusations from a woman with whom he acknowledged having a sexual three-way, according to the search warrant affidavit — says he’s staying put.
This party has some interesting family values.
Anti-democracy Democrats
On the other side of the aisle, I completely agree with the recent editorial in this newspaper that bashed Florida Democrats for essentially canceling this state’s presidential primary. What an anti-democratic stance.
Joe Biden may not have many big-name challengers, but everyone deserves to go to the polls in March. In this country, we have elections, not coronations. Plus, Democrats will probably hurt all their party’s down-ballot municipal candidates by giving Democratic voters less of a reason to go to the polls that day.
As the editorial said: “It’s an insult to Democratic voters and a disservice to local elections being held the same day.”
Sue for the win?
Finally, as a loyal ACC fan, I agree with all the die-hard Seminoles who think FSU got ripped off by the college football playoff crowd.
Still, this country is full of teams who’ve felt the same way in the past. (Just ask UCF fans.) Yet this time, Florida politicians are threatening to sue. And to use $1 million of our tax money doing so.
You know, in sports, there are two kinds of parents:
One sees a ref make a bad call and tells their kid that it stinks, but that life sometimes just isn’t fair and that the kid just needs suit up again and focus on the game.
The other storms the field, pitches a fit and demands the ref be fired on behalf of their precious pumpkin.
Most of us know who we’d rather sit with on the sidelines. More importantly, adding Florida politicians to this mix just seems like a way for this dumpster fire to burn even hotter … fueled by your tax dollars.