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NOK <br />Chairman Adams opened the discussion to the public. <br />Ralph Evans, Stewart, Evans, and Hafaer, appeared as attorney for the Applicant and <br />stated that he sided with staff on their recommendation to overturn the denial. He was here <br />to help the Board with their decision, along with Tom Tomasello who, would explain the <br />function of DEP, the CCCL, and the application of the rules in relation to this site. Also <br />present was Scott McGuire of Knight, McGuire & Associates, the agent and architect for the <br />Applicant. He addressed the concerns of the PZC with respect to view, armoring, and <br />erosion. He felt that the representations at the PZC may have been somewhat misleading. <br />He pointed out that the application has met all the rules and has gone through the County's <br />process. He understood the issue is significant to the County and called on Mr. Tomasello. <br />Tom Tomasello, an attorney in private practice from Tallahassee, advised of his <br />extensive past experience in working for the Department of State and Department of Natural <br />Resources in CCCL applications. In his private practice, he works on CCCL permitting <br />almost exclusively. He described the process and emphasized that, although the Board was <br />told earlier that the State never denies a permit, there is a difference between denying and <br />doing what they do to applicants. He explained that the process is only supposed to take 4 <br />months, but many of his clients are before the agency for more than a year and there is a lot <br />of give-and-take. The State nit-picks and the applicant ends up with a smaller, more costly <br />project, and one that may be moved landward. He wanted to assure the Board that when an <br />application is submitted to the State it gets extremely careful review but eventually the permit <br />will be issued. Although denial does not happen very often, it is a day-by-day experience <br />because some people just give up. The State has had to purchase at least one property <br />because of a denial. He detailed how the State has set the CCCLs by using models of erosion <br />with a major storm surge. Therefore, the 1987 CCCL is "the maximum amount of <br />March 7, 2000 <br />54 <br />