Tag Archives: comprehensive plan

HPS II phosphate mine in Union and Bradford BOCC meetings

Steve Pieczenik called the Union County Commissioners brave, honest, respectful, efficient, and transparent public servants. Jim Tatum said they had foresight and had taken appropriate steps. Both complimented the many mine opponents who showed up and spoke their piece briefly and effectively. Here are a couple of reports from Union BOCC’s Monday workshop about the HPS II phosphate mine.

Aerial: From the New River across the HPS II mine site to Lake Butler
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS on Southwings flight, 17 Sep. 2017, N from New River across mine site: l. New River P. r. Beasley; left center prison; top left Lake Butler, 09:55:21, 29.9550800, -82.3183000

The next one is coming up 5PM Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at which Union BOCC is scheduled to vote on extending its moratorium against phosphate mining, as well as reviewing their proposed Comprehensive Plan changes.

Meanwhile, across the New River, Bradford BOCC Continue reading →

A year of opportunities to stop phosphate mining in Union County, FL

Union County, Florida apparently takes its duties to the public seriously, with a series of meetings through the next year about mining (including phosphate mining) in its Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations (LDR). People in Union County and everywhere who don’t want another phosphate mine leaching into groundwater, rivers, and springs and driving away other jobs, please show up at the meetings or write to the Union Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). For example, start by advocating the Commissioners extend their moratorium against phosphate mining.

Jim Tatum of Our Santa Fe River (OSFR) has turned that schedule into an image, and I’ve included it below as text, with a link to Union County’s own PDF.

Union County, FL Mining Moratorium Schedule

Text version of Union County mining amendment schedule

Union County Continue reading →
Union County
Proposed Schedule
Mining Moratorium,
Comprehensive Plan Amendment &
Land Development Regulations Amendment
November 20, 2017
(PDF)

Rescheduled: Valdosta Workshop, 2018 5-year update, SGRC Regional Plan 2017-09-21

More Tropical Storm Irma effect. Received today, 12 September 2017:

Good morning, the meeting for the Regional Plan Workshop has been rescheduled from the 14th to:

Page 11: Regional Land Use Map, Regional Development, SGRC Regional Plan 2018 Full Update Workbook Draft, 17 August 2017 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 2017
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
SGRC Office
327 W Savannah, Ave.
Valdosta, Ga

Sherry H. Davidson
Local Government Services Director
FullLogo
229-333-5277 ext.124
229-300-0923 cell

For suggestions from WWALS so far and more Continue reading →

Bradford County, FL Comprehensive Plan 2012-04-19

Apparently you can mine almost anywhere in Bradford County, Florida, according to the Bradford County Comprehensive Plan:

Illustration A-X Bradford County MINING AREAS
Illustration A-X Bradford County MINING AREAS

That map is about as bad as the one in Continue reading →

Union County Proposed Mining Areas 2017-08-30

Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.

Here’s a much better map:

Proposed Mining Areas, APplication CPA 17-02, 2017-09-18
Proposed Mining Areas, Application CPA 17-02, 2017-09-18
PDF of this map

I was confused by the mining areas map in the NCFRPC materials for the recent Union County Comprehensive Plan workshop Monday 21 August 2017. That map in the previous post appears to show almost all of Union County as mining areas. So I asked NCFRPC E.D. Ed Koons. He clarified: Continue reading →

Mining change drafts for Union County Comp. Plan 2017-08-21

Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.

Update 2017-08-30: Follow this link for a proposed new and much better mining areas map.

Here are copies of the original searchable and high resolution PDFs of the three main items presented by NCFRPC (a slide presentation, the evaluation amendments, and a draft mining text amendment) at the Union County Comprehensive Plan workshop Monday 21 August 2017.

Mining Areas Map
Illustration A-X: Mining Areas on page A-25 of the Evaluation Amendments.
PDF of this page.

Thanks to Scott R. Koons, Executive Director, North Centra Florida Regional Planning Council, for sending these documents in response to a public records request from Suwannee Riverkeeper.

The documents are (with links to the PDFs): Continue reading →

2018 5-year update of SGRC Regional Plan Kick-off 2017-08-24

Received 21 August 2017:

Good Morning Everyone,

This email is to inform you that the Southern Georgia Regional Commission is formally kicking off its 2018 5-year update of the SGRC Regional Plan. The initial kick-off public meeting will be held during the regular SGRC Board meeting on:

Thursday, August 24, 2017
11 a.m. or soon thereafter
City of Pearson Sports Complex and Civic Center,
786 Austin Ave East, Pearson

Page 13: Conservation and Development Map
Page 13: Conservation and Development Map

The purpose of this kick-off hearing is to Continue reading →

Brooks County Comprehensive Plan Workshop

More about that in a previous post.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Workshop, Greater Brooks 2030 Comprehensive Plan, 2017-02-07

First on the list of Areas Requiring Special Attention in Brooks County, Georgia:

  • Areas of significant natural or cultural resources, particularly where they are likely to be intruded upon or otherwise impacted by development; such as wetlands, groundwater recharge areas and river corridors.

/pictures/2007-01-01--brooks-compplan/[Map D-4 Water Resource Protection Districts]
Map D-4 Water Resource Protection Districts

According to Ariel Godwin of the Southern Georgia Regional Commission,

The next workshop for the Brooks County Comprehensive Plan will be:

Thursday, February 7th, 2017
9:30 a.m
Brooks County Commission Offices
610 South Highland Street, Quitman

In this workshop we will work on the Land Use Maps and Character Areas.

We are inviting you to participate to ensure Continue reading →

Video of citizens and Commission against Sabal Trail in Suwannee County, FL 2015-11-17

The Commissioners unanimously voted for that resolution to ask Sabal Trail to move the Hildreth compressor station, as you can see on Suwannee County’s own video of that meeting.

First, several people spoke against the compressor station, including: