Venus neighbors to protest war games facility

Although it's been in the news for a year, Ellen Peterson just learned that Seth Ellis of Lake County plans to build Eagle National Training Center on a 7,700-acre farm near Venus.

Peterson and more than a dozen of her neighbors showed up Tuesday afternoon at the Highlands County Planning and Zoning Commission to block a request to change the zoning from agricultural district to a planned development district.

They didn't succeed. Zoning board members recommended the change 5-1.

"We are very concerned with what I term the latest 'School of the Americas, Florida style,'" said Peterson, referring to the U.S. Department of Defense facility at Fort Benning, Ga., where U.S. and foreign military personnel have been trained for 60 years. In this case, Peterson pointed out, the federal government won't be involved.

"There will be live fire, they are going to be having huge planes flying in, touch and go, and helicopters taking off," Peterson said. "Wildlife is not going to be able to survive anywhere on this 7,000 acres."

At a July 8 county commission meeting, founder Seth Ellis said he plans to initially employ 250 workers. Peterson believes up to 1,000 students - she called them mercenaries - will train there. Ellis did not return phone messages left Thursday at his office and on his cell phone.

"We're going be asking for an administrative hearing," she said, from the Department of Community Affairs or the Department of Environmental Protection.

The training center could be a threat to the 55-mile long Fisheating Creek, which drains water from Highlands County into Lake Okeechobee, said Peterson. Save Our Creeks was established in 1989 to wrest control of Fisheating Creek from Lykes Brothers, which owned the land around it.

After a decade of civil demonstrations, the state bought 18,000 acres around the creek.

Peterson said she will begin raising money and will try to involve the Environmental Confederation of Florida or Earth Justice to bring in an environmental lawyer.

Peterson is also concerned about stray bullets. She said the objection was raised at the planning meeting. Her neighbors were told that the range was about a half-mile.

Internet sources showed a variety of answers, but loadammo.com said a .380 handgun bullet could go six-tenths of a mile, while a .50-caliber could travel a maximum of 4.1 miles.

The 7,700-acre Southern Farms occupies about 12 square miles.

"It's scary for those neighbors," Peterson said. "They bought houses out there, and they're never going to be able to sell them now. And the poor astronomers, they bought out there so they would have the dark skies. That's going to be ruined."

History

A year ago, Seth Ellis, former president and CEO of ICx Digital Infrared Imaging and a partner in Gator Mezzanine Funds, which loans money to mid-sized companies, appeared before the Highlands County commissioners. He was presented by Lake Placid attorney Bert Harris Jr., seeking expedited permitting of the war games training facility.

If Ellis gets his way, by 2010, Venus will become known as a live-fire training center for the military, Homeland Security, local police and foreign governments. In a letter to the commission, Harris said foreigners must be employees and agents lawfully registered and documented through appropriate U.S. agencies.

Ellis planned a live-fire zone on 2,000 acres at the center of the property. This probably would include bullets but not bombs, he said. A third part of the agreement with the county would establish the development capacity and intensity limits.