BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Previewed changes to Bradford County’s Comprehensive Plan regarding mining and extraction were put on hold pending one or more future workshops.
Attorney Beth Moore from Sodl and Ingram Law Firm in Jacksonville spoke, saying she represented Chemours, which has been mining heavy minerals in the area since 1949, previously as DuPont. An application to continue mining west of Camp Blanding was approved in 2019.
While Chemours is a mining company, Moore said it is also a member of the community.
“We think the best course of action is to refer this to special workshops where Chemours along with other members of the regulated community, the business community, and the county can work on this product, provide more input to the language, and come up with, I think, probably a better product by looking at the needs of the county and how the language of the proposed amendment marries with those needs,” she said.
She asked the county to seek this input before submitting the amendment for state review, pointing out a couple of areas where the language was, in her opinion, “overbroad.”
She gave the prohibition on mining in all wetlands as an example, saying a “robust regulatory process” exists to ensure mined wetlands are restored.
“Typically, with mining operations, any impacts to wetlands are just temporary. The wetlands are put back in place after mining operations have ceased,” Moore said, also suggesting that language prohibiting mining in areas designated for conservation also be “more narrowly tailored.”
Moore said the county can do this while achieving its goal of being protective of its natural resources.
Commission Chair Diane Andrews revealed that after receiving several phone calls, she was requesting the amendment be workshopped as well. This would allow other professionals to review the language and definitions and make sure they are “correct” prior to approval.
Commissioner Danny Riddick said the amendment is the same plan the North Florida Regional Planning Council designed a few years ago for Union County, which placed a moratorium on mining permit applications until the changes were in place.
The commissioners sitting as the zoning board nevertheless recommended the commission pull the ordinance from the agenda pending future workshops, and it did.
Later during the commission meeting, Kate Ellison, who was one of many citizens who spoke out for years against proposed phosphate mining, recalled how many had requested workshops to, among other things, review the permitting process. The only scheduled workshop was canceled.
“Suddenly one person, one lawyer, walks up and asked for a workshop regarding the language in the land development regulations, and it’s granted. I just want to note that, for the record, citizen input is — perhaps could be — as important as the lawyers,” she said.
County attorney Rick Komando said the thought that an attorney’s request weighed more than the public’s was the “furthest thing from the truth.”
“Unfortunately, the public doesn’t get to see all the things that happen in that make the wheels turn behind the scenes, but it was actually the citizens’ comments as the basis for why mining regulations were sent to workshop,” he said. “Sometimes during the planning and zoning and those discussions, that doesn’t get communicated as effectively to the public. It wasn’t the lawyer that motivated that decision. It was actually the citizens.”
The public will also have an opportunity for input during any workshops.
In other business: a special exception for an offsite sign and a variance for sign height were approved by the Board of Adjustment for the Midway Jiffy on State Road 21 between Keystone Heights and Melrose.
