Nothing except my family makes me happier
than my horses in the Agreserve.
And being here every single day is my therapy.
This is a beautiful retreat where we don't have to think
about the worries of the world.
We've got nature, we've got beauty, we've got horses.
And every day I see developers chipping away at it
and making it very, very difficult to maintain
an agricultural and equestrian way of life.
And it makes me very, very sad.
And I wanna tell the citizens of Palm Beach County
how important it is to keep our Agreserve green
and to protect what we have as we voted on in 1999.
I was thrilled that the voters had a chance
to tell the government how important it was to them
to maintain agriculture in Palm Beach County.
And we put a hundred million dollars of taxpayer money
here to preserve it.
From the local reserve,
we receive tomatoes, peppers, parsley, cilantro.
And it will be very hard to serve a balanced meal
without the farm support.
Every day, around 400, the majority are mothers.
In our soup kitchen, the priority are the children.
We know that the future is in the new generation.
The developers are proposing to use land
that we now have and use for agriculture.
Agriculture not only in this area,
but in the entire United States is diminishing.
And what is gonna happen to our food supplies
once we have destroyed this land,
that's a big concern and should be a big concern
for everybody that lives in America.
When we take the land away
and build a concrete structure on it,
we're never gonna be able to have our land back.
We're never gonna be able to see the beauty,
the animals, the wildlife.
We're gonna continue to create challenges
for those people who live here
and who have created an environment that they love.
I don't think they have the right,
and a lot of people don't think they have the right.
But until someone comes up with an attorney
who will challenge them and a lot of money,
they're gonna do what they're gonna do.
It's wrong, I think it's illegal,
but you gotta have a lot of money
and a good attorney backing you up.
I recently completed eight years
as a Palm Beach County Commissioner.
Before that, I was a real estate developer
for over 30 years.
Having built thousands of homes
and dozens of commercial buildings,
during all of this development
of homes and commercial buildings,
I bought residential land and paid residential price.
And when I needed commercial land for shopping centers
or commercial buildings,
I also bought commercial land properly approved
for that purpose and paid commercial price.
I never had to go to government officials
to request any special concessions
or special rezoning of agricultural land
to build my homes and my buildings.
I felt that agricultural land was there
for farming and food production,
which is very important for Palm Beach County
and the entire state of Florida.
