Guest Column published in tcpalm.com
Extremely disappointed but not surprised.
That was my reaction to Wednesday’s unanimous decision by the three-person Florida Development Finance Corp. board to authorize $1.75 billion in bonds for the All Aboard Florida passenger rail project.
I attended the eight-hour public meeting in Orlando with my fellow Martin County Commissioner Anne Scott, dozens of other state and local elected officials and staff, as well as hundreds of citizens from communities throughout the Treasure Coast. We shared the room with All Aboard Florida supporters — including investors, attorneys, consultants, lobbyists, companies that stand to benefit economically and a busload of people from Miami who were promised free breakfast and lunch but didn’t seem to know why they were even there.
Despite our strong and compelling arguments, and organized presentation of the many negative impacts that will occur throughout the Treasure Coast if the proposed All Aboard project moves forward, the board simply chose to rubber-stamp it. It did so despite our expert studies and the commissioned reports that we implored the Florida Development Finance Corp. board to review before making any decisions.
Our pleas fell on deaf ears.
The finance board’s rationale is that the economic benefit to South Florida and Orlando is more important than the significant economic harm that will befall Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.
The Treasure Coast is less than 10 percent of the population being impacted by this project. To them, we are unfortunate collateral damage.
The Florida Development Finance Corp. chose not to consider the very real, life-threatening safety issues we raised. Nor did it consider the blatant flaws and deficiencies contained within the just-released Federal Railroad Administration’s Final Environmental Impact Statement. The environmental report was “coincidentally” released the night before the finance board’s meeting. At more than 600 pages, no one had time to read it, but the board still went ahead and made their decision without any analysis of what it meant to their decision-making.
What we have been able to determine, so far, is there doesn’t appear to be much difference between the draft and the final version of the environmental impact statement. Of significance is that 9,500 comments (almost two-thirds of the total comments received in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement) came from people who live, work or own property in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.
County staff and technical experts also submitted data that was overlooked. The final document does not alleviate Martin County’s concerns regarding the environment, the economy, public safety, impacts to marine and auto traffic, cultural and historical sites, rail safety and our underserved communities.
The Treasure Coast is different from our overly populated neighbors to the south, who are desperate to solve their traffic and congestion problems. Our beautiful communities are in jeopardy of being destroyed by trains barreling through our small towns at more than a 100 miles an hour.
In addition to exploring other legal avenues, part of our attention will now turn to our federal and state governments which, up to this point, have shown little willingness to assist us in our efforts to protect our people and our communities.
The fight, however, does not end with this bond approval. Martin County is strong in its resolve and unwavering in its will to limit the harm that would be caused to our quality of life, our economy and the safety of our citizens if the All Aboard Florida project proceeds as planned.
Citizens should not lose hope. Our battle to protect them continues.
John Haddox is a member of the Martin County Commission.