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| A closed-door meeting about the Deer Run Subdivision in Beulah was held at the County's Development Services facility |
The Preserve at Deer Run, a subdivision in Beulah, has had some issues.
Earlier this month, after a series of citizen complaints, the builder DR Horton was hit with a hefty fine by the state.
Several retention ponds were not functioning properly and some wetlands and boundary areas had silt and muddy water infiltration.
A consent order had been drafted and delivered to DR Horton by the NW Florida Water Management District--however this document had not been signed as of today.
This afternoon, County staff, state officials, DR Horton reps, local Environmental Consultants, myself and the project engineer all met at the County's One-stop building off of Fairfield Dr.
The meeting was not open to the public, and although Channel 3 had a crew at the site, they were not permitted entry to the closed-door meeting.
The primary issues discussed today were getting this development back on track, getting the four retention ponds in phase one functioning properly, remediating several areas of wetlands and boundaries that had been infiltrated by muddy runoff, and getting the boundary areas of 6 lots remediated so that five families that have already purchased these houses can move in. (The county will not issue the Certificate of Occupancy for these five lots until the remediation is approved and underway.)
The engineer of record for the project stated that he had completed initial plans for fixing the retention ponds, which he described as not functioning properly due to lateral ground water flow at all four pond locations.
An environmental engineer hired by the builder stated he would have the remediation plan for the wetlands infiltration on this project and in this phase prepared as early as tomorrow, Tuesday the 26th of March. He acknowledged the fact that it would need to be run through DR Horton corporate personnel before it would be sent to the county--and this process would take a few additional days.
The initial 2-week period given by the Northwest Florida Water Management District (from March 5th-19th)for DR Horton to sign the consent order had expired; upon my asking why, it was disclosed that DR Horton had asked for a brief extension of time to review this consent order. I asked point blank when it would be signed, and I was told it would be done "By this Friday."
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| A 9 page consent order has been issued to DR Horton by the NW Florida Water Management District. It will be finalized by this Friday according to state officials with whom I spoke today.. |
So we will see what happens next. According to one staff member that actually lives in this subdivision, the builder has, over the last several weeks, attempted to do a better job of protecting the wetlands.
Feb 26th I Reported Possible Violations to various agencies and County. Cited and fined $24,000, so far. It does not appear any issues are fixed. Today, I sent a follow-up email and additional serious concerns to County & agencies. At this point, I believe DR Horton should be made to halt all development until the serious issues mentioned here are inspected. If certain things can not be "fixed" and have been done improperly the county and other agencies can require a halt in all development and fine or make the permits and development orders "null and void." The issues of concern include: (1) County allowed only one ingress/egress for 390 homes despite the LDC calling for a second or if need be more than two ingress/egresses if more than 100 homes are in the subdivision. The traffic engineer claims one is allowed in the LDC in certain circumstances. I believe a "plain reading" and common sense would understand the LDC differently. At least two ingress/egresses should have been required for the 390 homes. (2) The storm water system in Phase I of The Preserve of Deer Run appears to have been passed through the County's Development Review process and on to the BOCC for final platting January 2018 without properly working. It still is not working 1 year 2 months later. The ponds are necessary to prevent flooding of the homes and the rainy season is almost upon us. (3) There are 116 acres of wetlands & 157 acres of uplands for 390 homes, roads, etc. State and county ordinances are to protect the very sensitive and critically important wetlands that prevent flooding, erosion and provide habitat for various life forms, etc. A "buffer of undisturbed vegetation" on the perimeter of wetlands an average 25 feet wide and a minimum 15 feet wide is required. The buffer areas in Phase I appear to have been bulldozed in many places which has contributed to the erosion and silt intrusion into the wetlands. In Phase II the demolishing of all trees and vegetation AKA "clear cutting" seems to have been completed, supposedly up to the buffer area. However the developer's plans show only a 15 foot buffer along the perimeter not the average 25 foot buffer, as required. They are digging huge wet ponds, now in Phase II. Was Phase II's required 25 foot average vegetated buffer preserved? (4) Army Corps permits allowing a road about 150 yards long, with one culvert to be built thru the wetlands "stream bed. It seems like a bridge would have been much wiser. The road has only one culvert in it and the dimensions given for the culvert seem to vary on the paperwork from 12'x 4' to 20'11" X 6'1" What was actually built? If this road gets washed out, there will be 315 homes beyond the road that will be cut off since there is no second ingress/egress planned for the 390 residents. (5) The serious damage to the wetlands and storm water ponds by silt intrusion is evident throughout Phase I's 76 homes. DR Horton is required to clean silt out by small machinery and hand buckets..are they really cleaning out the silt by using hand buckets? The supposed "clean-up" itself seems to be doing harm. Looks more like mostly just spreading straw over the reddish silt in an effort to cover it up? We will see in the next rain. Meanwhile, many of the issues must be addressed and swift appropriate action taken by the county and other agencies. I have been studying this and other tree related issues for months. I am Margaret Hostetter 850-512-7048 founder of Trees of Escambia County Florida, the effort to improve the County's Tree Ordinance. Properly protecting the trees in the wetlands is a huge part of our mission. Thank you Commissioner Bergosh for really getting on top of these issues in Deer Run and for further investigating to make sure these are not systemic issues in Escambia.
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