A deal to prevent oil drilling in the Everglades was finalized Monday, with the state of Florida’s purchase of land from a family that had obtained permits for an exploratory well.
The state paid $16.56 million for 20,000 acres in western Broward County owned by the Kanter family of Miami, whose drilling plan had ignited fierce opposition among environmentalists and nearby cities.
Joseph Kanter, a banker and real estate developer, bought the land during mid-20th-century South Florida building boom, with the intention of building a new city. But the land lay well inside the Everglades, and construction never took place.