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to original article at bonitanews.com) Rural residents worry
about new plans for mines
By Jamie Henline
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Residents of the Corkscrew Road Rural Community have spent $120,000 to
keep two mining operations away from their homes. They hired lawyers,
flew in experts to testify at public hearings and took time off work.
After two years, they succeeded. Lee County commissioners in 2002
unanimously denied Schwab Materials’ request to mine limestone on a
640-acre tract south of Corkscrew Road. Westwind Mine bowed out the next
year, withdrawing its application to rezone 456 acres for more mining.
The victory over mining interests might be temporary, though. Three more
mines have submitted permit applications to the county for operations on
East Corkscrew Road, an area prime for dirt and rock quarries.
If these mines are approved, Schwab will probably try again, said Jim
Lytell, a seven-year resident of East Corkscrew. The Six L’s Farms land
that is for sale also makes him nervous, he said.
The residents estimate $300 million worth of dirt is waiting to be mined
in their area. They say they are fighting Goliath.
“I’ve got a feeling this is going to develop into a real war. They’re
gonna run us out of money,” Lytell said.
In the past, residents cited quality-of-life issues such as increased
truck traffic and noise to beat back the mines. Now it’s time to look at
environmental issues, he said.
The land surrounding East Corkscrew is part of the Density
Reduction/Groundwater Resource area. The 96,000 acres were set aside in
the 1980s to reduce density and protect groundwater resources in the
county. Only three activities are allowed in the DR/GR: mining, farming
and development of one housing unit per 10 acres.
Increasing environmental restrictions in the DR/GR could end mining or
severely curtail it, Lytell said.
“We’ve never been very environmental before, but we’ll start,” he said.
“If we knew how to pursue it, we would. We would do anything that was
legal.”
They might have some help. Local environmental groups have been pushing
for more than two years for a comprehensive natural resources study of
the DR/GR that could lead to amendments in the county’s growth
management plan, said Nancy Payton, a field representative with Florida
Wildlife Federation.
“The county says the way it is now is working. We say it’s not working
because (the DR/GR) is going to be cannibalized by earth mining,” she
said.
The proposed Coconut Road interchange could help, Payton said.
The county Metropolitan Planning organization voted to accept a $10
million federal earmark to study the interchange, as long as the study
examines environmental impacts. That study could lead to designated
areas within the DR/GR where activities such as mining are not
permitted, Payton said.
“We want lines on a map where development will go, where mining will go,
where these destructive uses will happen,” she said.
Many of the lines would be driven by panther and wood stork habitat, she
said.
There are fewer than 100 Florida panthers left statewide, primarily in
the southwest, she said. Lee County is a popular spot for young males
seeking their own territory.
The growing incidences of vehicular deaths and male-on-male attacks
indicate panthers are getting too crowded, said Tom Reese, an
environmental attorney who represents Florida Wildlife. Seven panthers
died during the first two months of 2006.
Designating some areas of the DR/GR off limits to activities like
mining, which Collier County did a few years ago, will be difficult,
Reese said.
“A lot of miners are going to yell and scream that they have a right to
mine. That’ll be an issue to deal with,” he said.
Taking away any of the three uses in the DR/GR — mining, farming or
limited development — would likely lead to a legal battle, said Paul
O’Connor, county director of planning. The county would face Bert Harris
implications, such as the $23 million claim Schwab filed after their
rezoning was denied.
The Bert Harris Act, which is unique to Florida, allows property owners
to collect damages if government actions reduce property values.
“When they are doing comprehensive plan amendments, the board is in
legislative mode. You can legislate that we want all pink houses,”
O’Connor said. “There’s possible prices to pay for taking away those
uses designated on the property since 1990.”
Rock mining, which has been going on in Lee County since the 1950s, also
provides a necessary and basic building material for an area with rapid
development, he said.
There is only one sure-fire way to stop mining in the DR/GR, he said.
Buy it.
“There isn’t enough money to do that,” he said.
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