[slickmisc] Sawgrass: Executive Battles For Father's Land

["Rich Martin, Editor Slick eZine" <richslick@xxxxxxxxxx>]

       © 2002 Rich Martin
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From: Paragon Foundation News Service  
 
Immediate Release
Contact: Jay Walley
The Paragon Foundation News Service (PFNS)
Alamogordo, New Mexico
Email: PFNS@zianet.com
Contact Paragon Foundation Offices: Toll Free 1-877-847-3443
________________________________________________________________
Executive Uses Boardroom Experience To Battle For Father's Land

by Danny E. Meek, Esq.

PFNS, Naples, FL     Suzette de Armas is well educated, self-confident and successful. A former corporate executive, who traveled the world extensively for an international Fortune 500 company, she now devotes much of her time to her two young children and works in her father's business.

She is also devoting her energy and talents to a fight against government officials for the very homes of her friends and family. De Armas now finds herself increasingly involved with a group called The 15,000 Coalition, Inc.

The Coalition derives its name from a group of 15,000 residents of Golden Gate Estates, a suburb of Naples, Florida. De Armas' father, Gerardo Morales, is a Golden Gate resident and landowner. He is also president of The 15,000 Coalition.

The 15,000 Coalition, Inc., The Everglades Protection Society, The Dade County Farm Bureau and the 8.5 Square Mile Area Legal Defense Fund are a few of the more than seven hundred groups pledging their support to "The Sawgrass Rebellion." The largest property rights advocate group in the United States, The Paragon Foundation of Alamogordo, New Mexico, recently agreed to help South Florida residents in their stand against "unwarranted taking" of their properties.

The Sawgrass Rebellion is an umbrella organization founded to protect the property rights of South Florida residents through legislation, litigation, and public education. The Rebellion will culminate with a property rights rally October 17 and 18 in Naples, Florida. Four caravans from across the United State will converge there and then travel across the Everglades to Homestead, Florida on October 19.

After Fidel Castro came into power, Morales and his family fled from Cuba to the Miami area in early 1961. To Morales, his family, and millions of other Cubans, Castro’s takeover meant government confiscation of homes and land, nationalization of most businesses, and total loss of freedom. That was intolerable.

"We lost our property to Castro and the Cuban government," said Morales. "I can understand how that might happen in a communist country, but not here, not in the United States."

Golden Gate, outside of Naples, sits on the western edge of the Everglades. In 1999, Florida Governor Jeb Bush ordered county officials to resolve sprawl issues regarding the 93,000-acre rural fringe (including Golden Gate and Golden Gate Estates) of Naples.

For three years, county staff, consultants, and members of the Rural Fringe Assessment Area Oversight Committee attempted to hammer out a plan that satisfied environmentalists, and state officials, while at the same time preserved property owners' rights. The result has not been well received by area landowners.

By law, most residents who want to build in the Estates must first complete a wetlands evaluation of their land. They can hire someone to do the work or have the county do the evaluation. If the wetlands will be impacted by construction, the property owner must purchase acreage in other areas to compensate for the loss of wetlands. In rare instances, property owners have been allowed to mitigate that loss on their own property, but most have to purchase acreage from mitigation banks outside of Collier County.

Many Estates property owners are angry that they are required to mitigate at all. They have told state and county officials they did not know about wetlands mitigation when they purchased their property. Residents with existing homes have voiced concern over decreased property values and the possibility of being flooded by new government programs, if the property is restored to its natural water flow.

De Armas believes that the unwarranted taking of the property rights has an underlying rationale. She thinks that the federal and state authorities want to limit the immigration of Spanish-speaking people into the United States and are having difficulty justifying the prohibition politically.

"Everywhere you travel in Spanish and Latino countries, no matter how successful the individuals, they almost all have a goal of living in the United States," she explained. "They all want to come here eventually. If land in the United States can be taken away from them or restricted in the use, it is another form of prohibiting immigration. They will be discouraged from coming into the area."

De Armas pointed out that Golden Gate Estates area has about 25 percent Hispanic residents and that probably 35 percent of those are of Cuban descent. In addition, some 350 families in the 8.5 Square Mile Area (8.5 SMA) on the Eastern side of Everglades National Park are currently in a battle to protect their land against state and federal authorities. The 8.5 SMA also has a large minority population and de Armas does not think that these two battles are coincidental.

"You must be in a position to be able to control your own destiny and protect your constitutional rights," said de Armas. "That is why this is such an important battle for all U.S. citizens. These are the issues that we are defending, to be able to do what we want with the land that we own."

De Armas said it was necessary to take a stand to protect the property rights not only for her father, but also for the future of her children.



Photo caption: Suzette de Armas speaks at a property rights rally near Miami


-00-
 
PFNS is a public service of The Paragon Foundation, Alamogordo, NM
1-877-847-3443
 
 
 


Darby Convey Route 
http://www.sawgrassrebellion.org/caravan.html 
Dale Rapp 
Phone (740)857-1675 
E-mail dalerappii@msn.com 


Rich Martin
Editor, Slick eZine
http://slickplus.spunge.org/list/






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