Dear Council Members,
South Florida Wildlands Association (SFWA) is submitting the attached comment letter regarding the upcoming council meeting on the Wellington North and South developments. We appreciate this opportunity to weigh in on this important decision.
SFWA was founded in 2010 to protect wildlife and habitat in the Greater Everglades. Our organization is particularly concerned about the future of the property referred to as Wellington South. Those concerns are summarized as follows:
Since this property was first reviewed under the 1973 U.S. Clean Water Act, it has been considered federally jurisdictional wetlands. It currently appears on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wetlands Inventory and has been treated as wetlands by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District. It also appears on the U.S. Geological Survey’s topographic maps as a “submerged wooded marsh or swamp.” That wetland designation is a likely factor in the property remaining completely undeveloped to date.
Wellington South also provides numerous “ecosystem services” that are covered in detail in the attached letter. As a wetland and one of the lowest-lying properties in the district, those include reducing flood risks for the surrounding area; storage and purification of surface waters; recharge of Wellington’s surficial aquifer (the village’s sole source of drinking water); and a protective buffer for nearby public lands that are remnants of the Everglades and are hotspots for numerous species of native wildlife. Most noticeably, the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, the South Florida Water Management District’s Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East, and Wellington’s own Wellington Environmental Preserve at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Area. Each of these is approximately 1.5 miles from Wellington South.
Regarding the environmental preserve, the Village of Wellington recently participated in an important 45-acre expansion of the property that was completely covered in invasive plant species at the time of acquisition. Ironically, Wellington Village staff’s support for the development of Wellington South has in part been based on their view that the wetlands on the property are “low-grade” due to being covered in invasive plants. The invasives on the Wellington Environmental Preserve expansion are currently in the process of being cleared and restored with native vegetation – something that could have been done for the Wellington South property at any time.
We are also troubled by the changes in zoning and land use that are being requested by the applicant for both parcels – lifting of the Equestrian Overlay Zoning District (EOZD) for Wellington North (to allow for much greater residential density only about 0.1 miles from Wellington South) and a change in land use from residential to commercial equestrian for Wellington South. If approved, those changes will have long-term consequences for the future of the unique and protected landscapes of Wellington’s Equestrian Preserve Area. The changes would be a major step towards the conversion of this rare part of Palm Beach County and the Greater Everglades to dense Florida suburban development.
Lastly, in discussions with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), we learned that the applicant recently applied to the agency for a “no permit required” letter for the wetlands on the property. In December 2020, FDEP became the state agency that now fields most federal wetlands 404 permits in the state due to a transfer of permitting authority from the Army Corps of Engineers. The “no permit required” request appears to be based on an unusual Supreme Court ruling made last May which redefined and dramatically reduced which wetlands in the U.S. receive protection. Though the decision by FDEP is currently under review, the agency has made it clear to us that their decision is not whether there are wetlands on the property, but whether the wetlands that are present are still jurisdictional wetlands with regard to the U.S. Clean Water Act. However, nothing stops the Village of Wellington from applying its own standards here, including the application of its own Conservation, Sustainability, & Resiliency Element of Wellington’s Comprehensive Plan which calls for the protection of the village’s remaining wetlands and wildlife habitats.
Based on the above factors which are covered in much more detail in the attached letter, we are asking the Wellington Village Council to reject all zoning and land use changes for both Wellington North and South.
Please feel free to call or email with any questions or comments about this issue. For ease in opening our comment letter and sharing, we have provided an online version at the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1phEMc09ToIx5SDjNb1UFL8zMXj3kOH36/view?usp=sharing
Sincerely,
Matthew Schwartz
Executive Director
South Florida Wildlands Association
1314 East Las Olas Blvd., #2297
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
