10/25/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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staff. Attorney Vitunac assured the Board that his office is ready to proceed to the Chapter 120 challenge, but there is a_p_ossibility of delay in the construction. - Steve Moler. of Masteller and Moler clarified that the MSSW- permit is normally issued by St. Johns River Water Management District, but that decision is deferred to DEP on a wastewater project. Mr. Moler pointed out that there is a rule that the DEP has 30 days to respond and comment upon an application. They responded to our application months ago and it is only as of September 14, 1994 that they have a concern about the mitigation of the existing wetlands on the site. They have not accepted our response. They may not understand their own rules, that when our application is complete - and it certainly is complete and has been complete for a long time - they are bound to review the project and give us all of their comments in 30 days. They did that many months ago. There may be a legal question whether they have the right at this time to ask us for this information. That may be the fastest way to get this thing unlocked. Chairman Tiepin pointed= out that we need to get an audience with someone at the top. Commissioner Adams wanted to be sure that whatever action we take does not delay the project. She volunteered to make phone calls to see if we can reach the right parties. Chairman Tippin concluded that the consensus of the Board was to proceed with trying to make the right contacts before we begin the.legal challenge. Commissioner -Bird agreed, but stressed that we should not be bullied by a time table on this project to roll over and accept something from DEP that we know or feel strongly is totally wrong. They.get away with that a lot because people are concerned about a delay and they roll over and play dead, but this situation is too far reaching and we must go to the wall on this issue. Chairman Tippin recapped that the Board members agreed that Commissioner Adams would make the phone calls while the County Attorney researches the methods to approach things legally. Commissioner Bird clarified that there are two issues: we will not mitigate wetlands that we are going to enhance, and we want credit for the amount of _upland property that we are converting into wetland. BOOK 97 t71 FtIGE October 25, 1994