ROLAND H. EASTWOOD
Florida Statutes: Chapter 380
Purpose- It is the legislative intent that,
in order to protect the natural resources and environment of this
state as provided in 5.7 Art. 11 of the state constitution, ensure a
water management system that will reverse the deterioration of water
quality and provide optimum utilization of our limited water
resources, facilitate orderly and well planned development, and
protect the health, welfare, safety, and quality of the life of the
residents of this state, it is necessary adequately to plan for order
to accomplish these purposes, it is necessary that the state
establish land and water management policies to guide and coordinate
local decisions relating to growth and development; that such state
land and water management policies should, to the maximum possible
extent be implemented by local governments through existing processes
for the guidance of growth and development; and that all the existing
rights of private property be preserved in accord with the
constitutions of this state and the United States.
One could say, just by reading
Chapter 380 of the Florida Statutes, that Robert
Troutman's dream of
massive development on Estero Bay was probably a doomed idea to begin
with. Aside from the fact that Florida law forbid this kind of
ecologically harmful development, the Southwest Regional Planning
Council had hired some of the best lawyers in the state to do battle
with Troutman. One of them, Roland H. Eastwood, had just opened his
law offices when he received Troutman's application for the project.
He admits to have known nothing about the development until he
reviewed the application and started researching on his own. What he
found shocked him.
The plan was to build 26,500
dwelling units on top of approximately 6,484 acres of pristine
Florida wetlands. That comes out to 13 units per acre. Estero Bay was
a virtual nursery for small fish such as snook, trout, and redfish.
Not only would this amount to nothing short of an ecological
nightmare for Estero Bay, but Troutman's idea of building an
interceptor waterway would also cost the state
millions.
Eastwood accepted the case in
1973. He immediately hired a dream team of environmental lawyers
including Fred Bosselman, Dave Bruner, and Jim Humpfrey. The team
went to work and collected enough viable data to prove that
Troutman's development was a disaster in the making. Ultimately, the
Estero Bay development was shot down in court, but the decision
represents another kind of landmark in Florida history. If the
project was allowed to go ahead, Estero Bay, along with much of
Florida's coastal wetlands, would probably be quite different then
they are today.
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Roland H. Eastwood was
born on September 25, 1921.
He was the first
director of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning council
from March 1974 to November 1982. He served as Lee County
Commissioner
from November
1982, to December 1990. He was a practicing attorney for
Smout, Adams,
Corbin,
Johnson, and Green from December 1988 to December
1990.
He retired in 1990 and
currently resides in Ft. Myers. He is on the Goodwill Board
of Directors and a member of the Lee county Humane Society.
He is also a fifty year
member of the
Florida Bar.
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