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(Link 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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