 |
| Florida Power and Light has hatched a plan to cut down 70 palm trees at 13 locations on Perdido Key in District 1. They'll only do this if we cannot legally stop them from doing it. Oh, and I just found out about this yesterday afternoon at 5:00PM. And I bet the residents don't know about this plan, either. Yet. |
NO WAY!!!!
Not trimmed.
Not re-located.
Not re-planted with smaller palm trees.
Just cut down, unceremoniously, and hauled off.
I'm now being told they want to take even more, and are actively approaching private property owners requesting the ability to cut down many palm trees located on private property, as well.
Look, I get it that sometimes trees must be trimmed back to not interfere with transmission lines---we all understand that. But to just say you're going to send out a group of lumberjacks on ONE day, and in this ONE day remove 70 trees without any kind of discussion over it first--yeah, that's not going to happen if the county has any legal means at its disposal to stop this.
I'm awaiting additional information--including any such legal means the county may have at it's disposal to prevent this action from occurring. below is a part of some of a very nonchalant, matter of fact email chain I received from staff describing what apparently was just about to happen------late yesterday afternoon....
"Below is a list of addresses and tree count proposed for
removal. This work has to be complete by 3.26.22 (funding
constraints). They intend to start and complete the work in 1 (one) day."
Commissioner,
Yup. Now maybe you understand why I took the opportunity of the Sea Turtle agreement to come so hard on the County entering ANY business with this faithless, destructive, Banana Republic monopoly. I saw that piece of overpriced PR for them--my, but they have been busy scurrying around with their smoke screens--and went, oh boy. Here they come.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe since old people freezing in their houses hasn't been enough to knock the BOCC out of their complacency on this wretched company--there aren't enough County taxpayer dollars in the world to offset their rate increases, faulty equipment, power surges, and awful customer service--these trees will be the moment the BOCC understands that they need to engage on this. That would be pretty ironic but awesome at the same time, if cutting down trees became the moment for the BOCC to get going on something.
Now that the City Council has already done the heavy lifting, why not go in on the letter with Crestview to get the damn contract back up in front of the PSC? Continuing to appease our delegation and the state legislature on their program of ripping away home rule isn't working, anyway.
I really hope you look into just how much authority they do have. If you look on their site they have guidelines and it seems, they think they may try to get a property owner, at their own expense to remove a tree that is with in 50 feet of the transmission line. Can they enforce that legally?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to lay low but I have a 200 year old tree, and I have no intention of chopping it down because they may or may not get a limb on a line maybe one day. So far it hasn't.
FPL has to bear the brunt that if a storm does come through -- they have to react.
They can't scrap off every tree with in 50 ft of their lines and call it, "working for reliability." Greed. They aren't the only consideration in the entire scheme of things.
They can trim around the space on their own lines.
I will not comply.
Seriously can they legally turn off power or place a lien to force their will? Please look into this and take it to the top.
https://www.fpl.com/reliability/trees/tree-location.html
I have spoken to my contact at FPL and they have indicated they will look at dramatically reducing the number of these palm trees they will look at removing. I have also requested that we have the ability to replant them elsewhere and that was received positively--so I will be coordinating that with our in-house staff. Perhaps we will plant these at our beach access #4? And finally, I have asked that if these have to be removed that different palms (smaller) be planted in their place---as just leaving the spaces empty would look terrible. I am waiting to hear back on this request. I went out to PK after work yesterday afternoon--and I did see that there are a number of these palms that are literally in the wires already so I do believe something has to be done. I have asked the legal department to look at the easements to see what precisely is allowed and it does appear that the easements permit the utility company to clear, cut back, or remove vegetative growth which interferes with their utility lines so they are in the driver's seat.
ReplyDeleteHow wide of an easement do they actually own? Everywhere. I thought it was an area around the lines not the poles they come through and trim.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this info as I am applying it to my situation also ahead of time. Knowledge is power. I can see that it is best to not entangle the lines. My fence is about 3 feet from their power lines and I have a natural area of about 2/3 acre.
I would rather selectly remove trees that are small and naturally seeded and keep shrubs, like even privet or blueberry etc. Instead of they spray a herbicide on everything.
Thank you and good luck. Palms transplant well. You can't cut them back and they survive. There is a brochure on FPL site of what to plant. I hope they Grandfather in some magnificent specimens that are already established. Compromise.
I hope you can remove the palms and replant. Please keep up posted so we can apply it to our own situations. I'm not in your district but I'm not sure D5 would stand up to them or protect a tree or two.
This is somewhat off the exact subject but reliable power is important and keeping lines clear overall will help.
ReplyDeleteEntire counties going without power for weeks or more is somewhat unimaginable and the expense and effort to restore that infrastructure was heroic after Hurricane Michael
In not sure if people here really understand what Hurricane Michael did. In watching the wildfires this past week, it was evident it tracked over thousands of acres of remote wildlands and decimated the forests. What if that had been neighborhoods.
I already knew the track but I was holding my breath during the wildfires as I know the people and the land that was burning as well as the area evacuated.
So back to the subject. Yes I hate to see a tree come down but we have to look at it from a larger perspective.
I hope they trim limbs and not entire trees if they can be pruned. What is their policy.
This is an enormous expenditure that would be much better utilized
ReplyDeleteUNDERGROUNDING THE WIRES ON A BARRIER ISLAND.
While the palm trees may not be native, and arguably weren't the greatest idea for out there, they are *established* now. How on earth are we ever going to become storm resilient if we keep cutting down our established large trees?
This isn't rocket science for FPL...they simply don't want to spend the money. And those of us who sat through FPL's interminable BS at the City Council meeting heard their higher-ups state quite clearly that the result of their all-but monopoly absorbing the Panhandle is that the Pensacola area is going to have to get it line with all of the rest of the places in Florida they monopolize (which is almost all of it) and that they'd be taking their sweet time.
Then there was the absurd opinion that the BOCC's past lobbyist Richard Gentry wrote at the behest of Senator Broxson urging Grover Robinson to get a friendly opinion from him to stop the feasibility study. In that opinion, he all but stated that we weren't going to get anything better with a feasibility study because, unlike Winter Park, we were not a wealthy community. See how that works?
I cannot imagine by what classification or flow chart Perdido Key of all places does not warrant undergrounding. News flash: if we get hit with another Ivan, that infrastructure is toast anyway. FPL has made it *very* clear that if anybody is ever going to get anything out of that faithless, reprehensible company, the wheels better get squeaky real quick.
*Please* consider adding a discussion item to the agenda for the next meeting on the possibility of signing on with the letter the City of Pensacola and Crestview are sending to the Public Service Commission to demand the hearings that are warranted by that Commission's own definition of conditions.
When is the County's contract up with FPL? Not much longer, right? They need to experience the same, if not stronger, pushback from the County as they are experiencing from the City or they will continue to run over this area like a freight train on fire and continue to take down trees with no thought whatever for how the canopy is part of our storm resilience. There are many examples of how the contracts can be structured, including Destin's. But on a more local level, if Gulf Power could underground the lines on Via de Luna, why on earth can't FPL underground Perdido Key? One thing is certain: they're not going to gift it away. They have to cough up that billion dollar profit for their stockholders and spread around all that exorbitant salary love to their executives. The only areas that are going to get progress and "nice things" out of their racket is to present a unified front of demand better than other areas in Florida. If that doesn't happen, we're sitting guts to their crony capitalism corporate greed.