This is the first in a series of posts designed to elicit feedback from ASE’s environmentally minded residents. Once I have enough feedback, I plan to turn this post into a “page,” which can still evolve, but which doesn’t have a built-in comments feature.

Palm Beach County drafted a comprehensive plan some years ago (unfortunately, the county has made it available only as PDF chapters, instead of as plain text web pages, so it’s quite a bit more difficult for the public to review).

Chapter 5 of the Land Use element expounds a very worthy goal, in clear and compelling language:

It is the GOAL of Palm Beach County to provide for the continual protection, preservation, and enhancement of the County’s various high quality environmental communities for the benefit of its current and future residents and visitors.

Palm Beach County shall ensure the protection of natural resources and systems by enforcing and monitoring existing environmentally related ordinances and developing ordinances, as needed, pursuant to the goals and policies of the Conservation Element.

Despite this clear goal, ASE has watched in dismay as, time after time, county commissioners have approved exemption after exemption to the Conservation Element in favor of Land Use, gutting the plan and destroying any hope of keeping enough conservation lands to adequately protect our quality of life. If it wasn’t the Scripps project, it was an underwater cemetery.

Here is how the Conservation Element opens; I hope you see the irony of its opening line:

The purpose of the Conservation Element of the Palm Beach County Comprehensive Plan is to promote the responsible use, protection, and restoration of the County’s natural resources. This Element is prepared pursuant to Chapter 163, F.S., and Rule 9J-5.013, F.A.C. The protection and conservation of natural resources is of paramount importance in maintaining and improving the high quality of life that County residents demand.

In case you missed it, the irony is this: the “use” of natural resources is the first item mentioned in the Conservation element. Conservation and use are incompatible goals. The Land Use element of the Comprehensive Plan was supposed to be developed “pursuant to the goals and policies of the Conservation element.” And the Conservation element explicitly promotes use as its first goal. Whoops!