By DOTTY NIST
Owners of property in Large-Scale Agriculture and General Agriculture land use areas will now be able to construct ponds five acres or less in size and sell or otherwise dispose of material excavated during the pond construction under the terms of an ordinance recently adopted by the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC).
The measure, known as the Fish Pond Ordinance, was approved at the April 24 BCC regular meeting at the Walton County Courthouse.
It has been the most recent installment of a look by the BCC at adding some flexibility to the Walton County Mining Ordinance for agricultural areas. In place for over five years, the mining ordinance had been approved to establish regulations, standards, and best management practices for borrow pits.
The mining ordinance had had the consequence of preventing farmers and other landowners constructing ponds from removing excavated dirt from their property.
A year ago, the BCC had considered setting up a temporary small-scale mineral extraction permit program to allow landowners, on a limited basis, to remove and sell dirt from ponds and also to remove and sell dirt from upland areas on their property. However, that proposed temporary permit program was scratched in favor of proceeding with revisions to the Walton County Land Development Code (LDC) for the two agricultural districts solely in order to help with pond construction.
A companion ordinance revising the Walton County Comprehensive Plan was required and had been approved by the BCC on March 8. That ordinance had removed the requirement for materials excavated by landowners for ponds to be retained on the owners’ property.
As proposed at the April 24 BCC meeting, the Fish Pond Ordinance would have provided for material to be removed or sold from a landowner’s property from excavations for a pond up to 15 acres in size at an average depth of up to 15 feet.
Scott Caraway of Walton County Public Works, who had drafted the ordinance, was questioned regarding the maximum pond size and on how many ponds the ordinance would allow to be constructed on a property.
Caraway explained that the 15-acre size had been taken from the exemption criteria in Florida Statutes regarding water management, but he said that the maximum could be any size the BCC desired to set. He added that, as proposed, the ordinance would not limit the number of ponds that could be constructed on a property.
Caraway explained that a permit for fish pond construction had been drafted and that proposed pond construction would undergo a county permitting and review process by the Walton County Technical Review Committee. A $100 permitting fee was proposed, he said. Caraway also noted that there were requirements for reclamation of excavated areas and for inspection by the county to ensure reclamation.
Walton County Commission Chair Sara Comander commented that she understood the value of being able to sell dirt from pond construction. However she complained, “A 15-acre pond is not a pond, it is a lake.”
She was of the opinion that up to five acres was a good size for a fish pond and said she would be more comfortable with that number.
District 3 Commissioner Bill Imfeld said he thought at the time of the previous proposal last year, the BCC had given direction that the size of ponds would be limited to five acres in the ordinance.
Caraway responded that that limit had been associated with the part of the proposal involving the selling of material from upland portions of property and not with the pond excavation portion.
District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows recalled that the idea had been to allow property owners to dig small ponds and sell the dirt, but not to provide for digging many ponds on a property, resulting in many truckloads of dirt being removed and the property going “kind of into a dirt operation.” She expressed concern for unfavorable impacts on surrounding neighborhoods from all that hauling.
District 1 Commission Bill Chapman pointed out that property owners in these agricultural land use categories are engaged in farming and taking care of livestock. He said he thought the commission would want them to water and take care of their stock. Chapman also expressed concern that, with a small acreage maximum for ponds, there would be reduced benefit to parties in need of dirt for projects.
District 2 Commissioner Cecilia Jones recalled that 15 acres had been what the BCC had previously discussed and decided on.
Todd Burke, an attorney representing a group of residents, told the commissioners that a 15-acre pond dug 15 feet deep would yield 363,000 cubic yards of material, equaling 20,166 loads for the average 18-cubic-yard dump truck. This would result, he continued, in 50 truck trips a day for 1 1/2 years.
Burke said the value of the material, at $2.75 per cubic yard, would be $998,000 worth of material.
“It’s a mining operation is what it is,” he concluded of the 15-acre proposal.
There was a motion by Meadows to allow, per the ordinance, one five-acre pond 15 feet deep for each 40 acres of property. The motion was approved 4-1, with Jones voting no.