Gas station vote delayed
The commission meeting room was full and an overflow of about 150 people were forced to stay outside. Complaints about heat and not being able to hear the meeting outside like commissioners to postpone the controversial issue. PHOTO BY LYNDA KINSEY
County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a resolution to seek to have Florida Forever purchase the land where a gas station is proposed to be built over an underground cave system. PHOTO BY WILLIAM SNOWDEN
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
Hundreds of people showed up from around the region to express their concerns about a proposed gas station to be located near known underground caves that flow to Wakulla Springs. But only 95 people could get into the county commission chambers, leaving about 150 people to swelter in the heat outside.
After 30 minutes, expressing concern about the citizens outside, the county commission voted unanimously to postpone the controversial comp plan amendment for another day and another venue.
And then Commission Chairman Ralph Thomas dropped the bombshell that he has been working with state Rep. Jason Shoaf (R-Port St. Joe) to try the land purchased by the Florida Forever Fund.
Thomas was optimistic about the possibility.
Some citizens were too. Eugene Watkins, usually a harsh critic of the commission, called it a “glorious moment.”
Some citizens, such as Kellie Keys and former commissioner Lynn Artz, suggested that if the state did buy the land it would be perfect as a park with with exhibits explaining the underground cave system or a welcome center for Wakulla.
Other citizens expressed support, but warned that the state’s money for land buying has been cut and not to count too much on that solution.
One citizen, Claudia Sperber of Tallahassee, said she was “profoundly supportive” of the land being purchased by the state but worried it’s not guaranteed.
Southwest Georgia Oil Co., which operates Inland gas stations, has proposed a 16-pump station and car wash at the corner of U.S. Highway 319 and Bloxham Cutoff.
Controversy arises from the fact that the Wakulla Karst Plain Project, which studies the underground cave connections, has mapped a tunnel under portions of the property that flows directly to Wakulla Springs.
How to protect the underground cave system has been the crux of the controversy.
Southwest Georgia had first made the proposal a year ago, it was voted down by the planning commission and then the company withdrew it in February right before it was to be heard by county commissioners. Then-county commissioner Randy Merritt announced that he would have had no choice but to vote for the gas station and charged staff to find a legal basis to vote no.
Staff initially thought of setbacks fromthe underground caves, but the caves are 100 to 200 feet underground and there’s no way for a surveyor above ground to put up stakes with red flags to demarcate where the edge of the tunnel is and thus where the setback would begin.
The county staff and a consultant came up with a proposed ordinance that would require more soil testing and other work on sites, and that would look at the location of gas underground storage tanks.
County Administrator David Edwards told commissioners that, in a meeting with theattorneys with the general counsel of state Department of Environmental Protection, he and other county officials were told that the county could not preempt state regulation of storage tanks. The meeting was also attended by County Attorney Heather Encinosa and other county staff.
The county ended up dropping the ordinance.
After some DEP officials denied they stopped the county’s ordinance, Edwards has been lambasted in some state media for allegedly lying to commissioners.
Some citizens groups got together and tried to write an ordinance to protect the underground cave systems, but commissioners rejected it, saying it relied on ordinances from other counties that have setbacks from aboveground features – cave openings, for example – but did not solve the problem of how to do a setback from something 100 to 200 feet underground.
But the way commissioners rejected it drew some scorn: At the meeting on July 17, Commissioner Chuck Hess made a motion to approve, and Chairman Thomas asked for a second or a second for discussion and none of the other three commissioners would make such a motion.
When the matter died for a lack of second, citizens erupted in anger – many yelling and pointing fingers, there was a brief sit-in, and three people were escorted out by a deputy, including Jack Rudloe of Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea. (Rudloe had his no trespass order lifted and was able to attend the commission meeting on Monday, Aug. 4.)
At Monday night’s meeting, county officials were well-aware that the matter would draw a crowd and that the meeting room size is limited. (Edwards had told the Sun last week that there was possibility that the meeting could be moved to the community center if the crowd was big. That didn’t happen because the attorney noted that some items on the agenda had been noticed for the commission chambers, not the community center.)
Ninety-five people were allowed in, counted off by Fire Chief Louis Lamarche, and everybody else had to stay out in the heat.
County staff had set up several tents, there was cold water and a big fan. TV monitors had been set up to provide those outside with a way to follow what was happening inside.
But commissioners called a recess 30 minutes into the meeting out of concern for what was happening outside, and they unanimously agreed to postpone the gas station issue and hold it at a later date in a larger venue, presumably the community center.
It’s not clear when the matter will be reset.
