For nearly three hours the Levy County Planning Commission grappled with a request to develop thirty-seven home sites along the coastline. The November 1 meeting ended with rapid recommendation of an amendment to a county ordinance that will tighten sewage system requirements, an issue related to Gulf water quality, as was the home site development request. The Commission also reelected Vaughn Lee as Chair and elected new commission member Toni Collins as Vice-Chair.
Rob Corbitt of the Levy County Building and Development Department described the proposed development, which is in environmentally sensitive land and in a high hazard flood zone, saying that a dump site, archeological site, an historic site and boundary questions must be answered before development. He itemized thirteen conditions that must be met before approval of the sketch plan can be approved by his department.
Levy County`s Planning Director, Kathy Winburn, followed Mr. Corbitt. She addressed regulations for the requested increase in housing density in the development plan. She noted specific failures to provide information needed to comply with the County`s Comprehensive Plan. The missing information included how wetlands would be preserved and provisions for affordable housing.
Attorney Mike Smith, speaking for petitioner Dennis Andrews, said that he had no disagreement with the County staff's recommendations, and that there had been or would be compliance with the recommendations. George Sandora of Otter Creek, a former Building Department employee and a local building contractor also spoke in favor of the requested development. Sandora reserved time to rebut remarks that he expected opponents of the development to make.
Mike Hodges, President of the Cedar Key Aquaculture Association, spoke first in opposition to the request, emphasizing that claiming jurisdictional wetlands as part of the development was not proper. Sue Colson cited a letter of opposition from the Cedar Key City Commission. She showed photographs that documented Whale Island as well inland from the development sites. Colson lauded the Levy County Comprehensive Plan which protects forestry land. She added that the proposed development was not in commercial forestry because it is mostly salt marsh. Leslie Sturmer reminded the Commission that a $10 million clam industry and a $1.5 million oyster, crab and mullet fishery are endangered by housing development in the coastal zone. Rick Cooke, speaking for the Oysterman Association, ridiculed the forestry use claim for the wetlands of the proposed Andrews development. He said that there were sites for just four, not thirty-seven houses on some high spots. Commissioner Toni Collins pointed out that no drainage plan was included in the application for development. The reply from a supporter of the development was that," Just because the code says something, it is not a hard and fast rule."
George Sandora, in rebuttal to criticisms of the development, compared the newly approved Anchor Cove development in Cedar Key to the Andrews proposal, saying that the proposal is twenty times less damaging than Anchor Cove. To which Sue Colson responded that the water around Cedar Key is permanently closed to shellfish harvest whereas the Andrews development would threaten areas that are now safe for harvest of clams and oysters.
The Planning Commission nearly came to a stalemate over a motion and amendment that would have died for lack of seconds. However, Chair Lee passed the gavel to the Vice-Chair in a parliamentary move that allowed him to provide seconds. The Commission passed the amended motion to recommend approval of the Andrew petition, with multiple conditions attached. The motion passed, three to two, with Commissioners Collins and McCollum voting against and Commissioners Lee, Bill Hammond and Ken Crosby voting for. | 