A loophole in county law allows developers wanting to clear land a way to do so without regard to endangered or threatened species. Our county should close this loophole immediately, and make sure no one can skirt the law when it comes to our environment.
At a recent Natural Resource Advisory Commission meeting, a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer said that some developers are using a loophole that allows less than two acres of land to be cleared without an environmental impact statement. Large developments can simply clear small pieces of the land at a time; bypassing important inspections that make sure wildlife such as gopher tortoises can be removed.
Ethical developers would never do this, but clearly plenty of unethical ones would. The F&W officer said it's happened many times and there is little that can be done after the fact.
County employees say there's no way to know how many animals were buried during the land clearing after the fact, and they have no recourse.
Highlands County Commissioners can easily close this loophole and they should begin the work on that immediately. To do nothing is not acceptable.
We shouldn't hamstring local developers by making it too difficult to operate, but these are reasonable laws that protect our part of Florida. All that's being asked is that they play by the rules, not find a way to sidestep them.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement
Advertisement