Secondary and Cumulative Impacts

1000 Friends of Florida is Fighting to Protect the Florida Keys (Foresight, Winter 1997)

By Terrell K. Arline, Legal Director

Roads equal growth. The more cars, the more people. It’s a simple equation. For the past few years, 1000 Friends of Florida has been involved in a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Transportation over the proposed widening of the "18-mile stretch"—the portion of US 1 from Florida City to Key Largo.

Because the number of building permits that can be issued in Monroe County is directly tied to road capacity, widening this portion of US 1 would enable the county to issue hundreds more permits. Greater road capacity would also encourage more "day trippers"—people from South Florida who travel to the Keys on the weekend, impacting the fragile resources of the Florida Keys by using the roads and already inadequate sewage system, not to mention running over the grass flats with their boats. In legal terms, the impacts of these new people—those building new homes, and those just coming to the Keys to visit—are called "secondary impacts," as opposed to the direct impact of the new road’s filling of some 150 acres of wetlands.

In its suit, 1000 Friends argued that DOT had to consider these offsite impacts in the permitting process, and either reduce the size of the project, or mitigate for the impacts it would cause at the end of the road. While the judge agreed with 1000 Friends that the project would cause growth in the Florida Keys, he concluded that current planning efforts were adequate to protect the environment.

1000 Friends is currently appealing this ruling. For the past six years, 1000 Friends of Florida has been trying to get the state and Monroe County to adopt and implement a comprehensive plan in the Florida Keys. In 1995, we obtained a major victory for growth management by convincing the governor and Cabinet to rule that the carrying capacity of the nearshore waters of the Florida Keys had been exceeded by the county’s failure to install adequate sewage and stormwater facilities for the existing development. The Cabinet ordered the county to develop, fund, and implement plans to install sewer and stormwater systems. 1000 Friends contends that, because this planning process has not yet shown results, the state should not be allowing more people to build in the Keys.

While challenging the 18-mile stretch widening, 1000 Friends also geared up to challenge DOT’s application for federal wetland’s permits, issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. Information we provided the Corps regarding the offsite, secondary impacts of the project convinced the Corps’ Colonel Terry Rice that DOT’s proposal would adversely impact the Florida Keys. When Rice indicated his intent to deny the federal permit, DOT withdrew its application.

1000 Friends of Florida has asked the Governor’s Office to ask DOT to come back to the drawing board to really discuss the secondary impacts issues raised originally by 1000 Friends and now corroborated by the Army Corps. We remain determined to ensure that the secondary impacts of the 18-mile stretch widening will be better managed when the project is undertaken.