Jesse Hardy

Fighting to keep his land

Sunday,
September 07,
2008

Who is
Jesse Hardy

His Story

The Ballad of Jesse Hardy

Interview with Jesse

Jesse Hardy - who is he?

Jesse Hardy is a native Floridian, a disabled veteran, a citizen of the United States, and, until recently, a man who thought his rights and property were protected by the laws and ideals of this country.

Jesse lives in a portion of Collier County, Florida, known as Southern Golden Gate Estates. He is the only homeowner left in that development. All his neighbors have gone, their property taken by eminent domain. His dream of creating an aquaculture farm on his property in order to provide for himself and his family has been thwarted by the Department of Environmental Protection, the South Florida Water Management District, the State of Florida, and several environmental organizations. They SAY that they wish to restore this portion of Collier County to its original state for very ambiguous and often-conflicting environmental reasons.

Jesse Hardy is not against this project. He is willing to coexist with the agencies involved. He is not in their way. Restoring this area to its original state will require flooding 55,000 acres of land. According to Jesse's engineer, Richard Thompson P.E., the agencies involved in the project have not demonstrated a need for Jesse's property. It appears that some of the alternatives under consideration will not adversely affect Jesse's property. The final alternative for accomplishing the restoration has not been selected. Until the actual plan has been decided, it can not be shown that his property will be affected.

Jesse and son, Tommy

Jesse does not give up easily. When told that his son, Tommy, might never walk or talk, after a difficult birth, he took on that challenge and won; today Tommy is a normal, red-blooded, eight-year-old American boy. Jesse is not giving up on this eminent domain issue, either.

We must realize that, if Jesse's property is taken by eminent domain, it will be the first time eminent-domain has been used to take homesteaded property in Florida for an environmental project. This will set a precedent that should concern us all. Who among us is next?

This project originally had the support of local residents because its proponents promised that:

• it would create more drinking water for Collier County;

• recreation would be provided;

• it was a "willing-seller" program;

• the area would never be developed

Those promises changed dramatically as the ground-breaking drew near:

• the water is no longer ours;

• the recreation is on hold;

• eminent domain was used on thousands of acres of land owned by people all over the world; hundreds of non-homesteaded homes were eminent-domained; the few homesteaded homeowners settled under threat of eminent domain. Prices on these buyouts ranged from $2,000 to $70,000 an acre.

One can only wonder if the no-development promise was also a lie.

Jesse Speaks Out

Articles about Jesse

Letters to the Editor

Legal
Document

Contact Jesse