CLA Public Comment Summary

7/29/2019 CLA Public Comment Summary

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State Conservation Land Assessment

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SUMMARY OF PUBLIC COMMENT(From 8/21/13 through 9/11/2013)

Public Meeting 1: Wednesday, August 21, 2013 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

The initial public meeting was held in Conference Room A of the Douglas Building at the Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee. An introduction to the reasons for the Conservation Lands

Assessment was provided by Susan Grandin, Director of the Division of State Lands. This was

followed by a presentation of the process itself, given by Marianne Gengenbach, Acting Administrator

of the Office of Environmental Services. The PowerPoint for this presentation is posted on the DEP

website at: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/lands/assessment/default.htm

The presentation was followed by a question and answer session about the processes being used to

conduct the assessment and the scientific model that had been developed. Information was provided

regarding next steps in the process. These included a detailed site-by-site review, including for title and

legal issues, further opportunity for public input at the special September 13 meeting of the Acquisition

and Restoration Council (ARC), and future regional public meetings at dates and times to be

announced. There were 42 attendees at this public meeting, ten of whom provided public testimony.

The speakers included representatives from the following organizations:

Audubon of Florida1000 Friends of FloridaFriends of the WekivaFlorida Native Plant SocietyNorth Florida Land TrustFlorida Trail AssociationVarious Sierra Club chapters

There was a variety of views expressed about the overall assessment process, which ranged from

opposition to any surplus, especially in specific areas, to expressing a need for scientific defensibility of

the results, judicious application of any model and the need to include consideration of Coastal High

Hazard areas and Areas of Critical State Concern in the final analysis. Specific sites for which

opposition to surplus was given in public testimony included the following:

Catfish CreekCayo Costa State ParkGoethe State ForestGreen Swamp sitesHilochee tracts

Keys sitesPorter PondSeminole State ForestWekiva Springs sites

Any sites important to the National Scenic Trail

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/lands/assessment/default.htm






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Webinars

Both webinars were conducted in similar fashion to the public meeting. Introduction to the assessment

was provided by Susan Grandin and the PowerPoint presentation was given by Marianne Gengenbach.

This was followed by participants typing in their questions or comments and answers were provided by

the Division of State Lands team through Ms. Grandin and Ms. Gengenbach. Most of the questionsand comments centered on the assessment process, clarification of next steps, reiteration that the

published list was NOT a recommendation for surplus, but simply a list of sites that had come from

various sources and were subject to much more review at various levels. There was also clarification

provided that any sites that made it through all the upcoming levels of review would still have to go

through the statutory process for surplus.

Webinar 1: Thursday, August 22, 2013 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

This webinar lasted 113 minutes and had 46 attendees. While most questions were about the processand timeline for the assessment, several attendees did post comments about specific sites on the list,opposing their inclusion:

Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park - 1Cayo Costa State Park – 1Florida Keys Wildlife and Environmental Area – 2Hilochee Wildlife Management Area – 2Lake Talquin State Forest – 1Manatee Springs State Park – 1Oleta River State Park – 1Osprey Unit – 1Tomoka State Park - 1

Webinar 2: Friday, August 23, 2013 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m.

This webinar had 106 attendees and lasted 99 minutes. Again, most questions were about the processand timeline for the assessment. Specific sites over which issues were mentioned were as follows:

Cayo Costa State Park – 1Florida Keys Wildlife and Environmental Area – 3Indian River Lagoon Preserve State Park – 2Oleta River State Park – 3Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park -1Porter Pond Tract – 1Sebastian Inlet State Park - 1Tomoka State Park – 1

Public Comment Period August 21 through September 11, 2013

The DEP’s Division of State Lands and Office of Public Services have compiled email and writtencorrespondence received during the above time period, and has provided a summary of thosecomments in the attached chart. We logged 561 pieces of correspondence, but you will note that the




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chart contains 798 comment entries. That is because if a single individual posted comments aboutmore than one site, it was noted accordingly.

Letters addressed to the Acquisition and Restoration Council directly, or requested to be copied tothose members were posted on an ftp site so that all ARC members would have access to their contentprior to the September 13th meeting.

After the September 13th ARC meeting, the Division intends to hold 4 regional public meetings, locatedin Pensacola, Orlando, Melbourne and Naples. These sites were chosen to be closest to those regionswhere the most public interest has been raised.

This report will be updated to reflect both the ARC comments and guidance received September 13 th and comments received at the regional public meetings.




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Summary of email and written correspondence through September 11, 2013

State-Owned Conservation Area County

Number of

Comments

Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park Polk County 7

Avalon State Park St. Lucie County 1Big Bend Wildlife Management Area Dixie County 1

Bruner Bay Tract Washington County 1

Blue Springs State Park Volusia 3

Cayo Costa State Park (11out of 21 sites removed) Lee County 180

Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park Charlotte County 2

Etoniah Creek State Forest Putnam 1

Florida Caverns State Park Jackson County 1

Florida Keys Wildlife and Environmental Area Monroe County 56

Gasparilla Island State Park Lee County 3

Goethe State Forest Levy County 1Hilochee Wildlife Management Area Polk County 42

Homossassa Springs Wildlife Park Citrus County 1

Indian River Lagoon Preserve State Park Brevard County 80

Jonathan Dickinson State Park Martin County 14

Lake George State Forest Volusia County 2

Lake Louisa State Park Lake County 3

Lake Manatee State Park Manatee County 6

Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway (7 out of 12 sites removed) Marion County 2

Matanzas State Forest St. Johns County 2

Northern Biscayne Bay (Not specific) Miami-Dade County 1

Oleta River State Park Miami-Dade County 106

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park Alachua County 1

Picayune Strand State Forest Collier 2

Pine Barrier Islands (Not specific) 2

Porter Pond Tract Washington County 7

Rainbow Springs State Park Marion County 1

Sebastian Inlet State Park Indian River County 25

St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park Indian River County 10

Tate’ Hell State Forest Franklin County 1

Terra Ceia Preserve State Park Manatee County 1

Tomoka State Park Volusia County 26

Torreya State Park Liberty County 1

Wekiwa Springs State Park (2 out of 5 sites removed) Orange County 42

Withlacoochee State Forest Sumter County 1

Yucca Pens Unit Charlotte County 2

GENERAL COMMENTS (process, don’t surplus conservation lands, etc.) 161

TOTAL COMMENTS 798

Strikethrough indicates that the entire site has been removed from the list

Documents

CLA Public Comment Summary