By DOTTY NIST
Panama City Beach/Walton County – Representatives of state and federal regulatory agencies and representatives of the St. Joe Company met with members of the public on Aug. 31 to discuss a proposed agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for wetlands and other property in 28,327 acres of St. Joe Company-owned in St. Joe’s Bay-Walton Sector Plan area—with 6,034 of those acres located in Walton County.
The meeting was held at Panama City Beach City Hall.
The proposed agreement with DEP is known as Ecosystem Management Agreement 3 (EMA 3). Also discussed at the meeting was a proposed companion agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the federal regulatory agency for wetlands and surface waters.
Andrew Joslyn, program administrator for DEP’s Pensacola office, told attendees that comments from the public were being taken by the agency on the EMA 3 proposal.
Andy Kizlauskas, chief for USACE’s Panama City permits section, told the group that a team had been assembled in the early 2000s to develop EMA 1 and Regional General Permit (RGP) 1, the agencies’ original state and federal permitting plans for St. Joe land in Bay and Walton counties. Team members, he explained, included members of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, DEP, USACE, and the St. Joe Company.
Kizlauskas said regulators had been particularly concerned about cumulative impacts of development on water quality in Lake Powell and West Bay. While planning is often reactive, an opportunity for proactive planning was identified in connection with this single owner of over 100,000 acres in the area, he noted.
This was an opportunity “to get ahead of development and do some real watershed planning,” Kizlauskas explained, using the RGP as a tool.
Compliance checks are conducted to ensure that impacts are in line with what was permitted, he said.
As advantages of the approach Kizlauskas identifed a “predictable path” for development accompanied by enhanced protection of natural areas.
Implemented in 2004, EMA 1 applied to a 31,369-acre tract owned by St. Joe bounded by the Intracoastal Waterway on the north, St. Andrew Bay-West Bay on the east, U.S. 98 on the South, and Peach Creek on the west. It was divided into three basins, including Breakfast Point, Devil’s Swamp, and Lake Powell. The agreement provided for conservation of more than 20,760 acres within the two counties.
The agreement authorized dredging and filling in waters of the state, established two mitigation banks, and resulted in construction and maintenance of stormwater facilities associated with residential, commercial, recreational and institutional projects.
Approved in 2011, EMA 2 encompassed 42,998 acres of St. Joe Company lands in Bay County, located south of the Intracoastal and centered around the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.
General cardinal boundaries for EMA 3 are the portion of the Bay-Walton Sector Plan that is located north of the Intracoastal.
Kizlauskas said the same team that had created the original EMA and RGP had continued with the planning for EMA 2 and now EMA 3.
Joslyn told attendees that over time the environmental regulations and protection measures associated with the EMA have “become more enhanced.”
He listed components of EMA 3 that are termed Net Ecosystem Benefits (NEBs), the first of those being Conservation Units, areas of high-quality upland and wetland habitat that would be excluded from development. Other NEBs associated with EMA 3 are: wetland/surface water impact limiting criteria providing for 92 percent of all wetlands and 99 percent of all high-quality wetlands to be preserved; inclusion of significant uplands within Conservation Units; enhancement of uplands in Conservation Units to provide potential habitat for the threatened flatwoods salamander; wetland delineations using the most landward line of wetlands in lieu of using one federal and one state wetland line; average width of 50 feet and minimum width of 30 feet for buffers between unconverted high-quality wetland and development; minimum 100-feet buffers for streams and tributaries within Conservation Units; no fill for septic tanks or drain fields in wetlands; design of all development to meet Stormwater NEB criteria, with discharge to meet Outstanding Florida Water (OWF) standards following construction; use of Sediment and Control NEB criteria to provide enhanced water quality protection; addressing of cumulative and secondary impacts over and above what can be accomplished through normal permitting practices; and preservation of the landward extent of the Choctawhatchee River floodplain, with use of upland buffers that would not otherwise accompany a conservation framework to provide greater protection to the river, bay, and associated wetlands and tributaries within the EMA boundary.
Representing the St. Joe Company, Bridget Precise and April Wilkes conveyed thanks to the agencies and consultants that had been involved in the EMA/RGP planning process with them. They emphasized the company’s intent and goal of being environmentally conscious with its property and the central importance of the EMAs and RGPs to their environmental stewardship. They pledged a continued commitment in this regard.
Precise predicted that the “efficiencies” associated with the EMA/RGP permitting program would continue to benefit the environment and the entire area as the company continues with its focus on its property in Bay and Walton counties.
No projects have been proposed for EMA 3 at this time.
Information on the EMA is available on the DEP website at www.dep.state.fl.us/northwest/StJoeEMA/joeema.htm . Andrew Joslyn may be contacted for information on the EMA at (850) 595-0671 or by email at Andrew.joslyn@dep.state.fl.us.
The USACE public notice on the RGP, along with the draft RGP 3 and exhibits are located at the link shown for “Regional General Permit (RGP) SAJ-114” on the agency’s website at www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Items-of-interest/.
Either of the following may be contacted for questions on the proposed RGP: Melinda Witgenstein at (850) 763-0714 (ext. 24) or Andy Kizlauskas at (850) 763-0717, (ext. 23).
Comments on the RGP must be in writing and should be emailed to Witgenstein at melinda.m.witgenstein@usace.army.mil—or mailed to the following address: Department of the Army, Jacksonville District Corps of Engineers, Panama City Permits Section, 1002 West 23rd Street, Suite 350, Panama City, FL 32405-3648.