PORT CHARLOTTE — Another proposed mining project with a recreational byproduct is before Charlotte County — getting negative reviews from the Planning and Zoning Advisory Board on Monday.
The board voted 3-1 against recommending a rezone from agriculture to mining and extraction on 164 acres at 44800 Bermont Road. Any final decision is made by the Board of County Commissioners.
Landowners have submitted a mining and extraction on 164 acres at 44800 Bermont Road near Babcock Ranch in eastern Charlott County.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY
The plan is to use the lakes that would result from several years of mining, for water sports including jet skiing and motor boating. Currently, the site includes a motocross operation that has lost business to a similar facility closer to the Punta Gorda Airport, park and landowner Kurt Traulsen told the board.
James Weeks, who runs Farabee Mine and Shell LLC, said the project would provide a public benefit by reducing the pressure of water sports on the region’s treasured waterways — the Peace River, the Myakka River and Charlotte Harbor.
But board member Stephen Vieira said Bermont Road cannot handle more large gravel truck traffic. County commissioners have fretted over the years about the dangers of driving on the remote rural road when gravel trucks barrel by at high speeds. The road along with the intersection with State Road 31 has been the site of 8 fatal accidents since 2016.
Weeks insisted that the proposed shell mine would add no more truck traffic than is currently on the road, because his other nearby mine will be closing as this one would initiate.
Viera noted a contradiction with Weeks saying the trips would max out at 15-30 trucks a day, but the reports stated 75 trucks or 150 trips a day.
“I have a problem with the ingress and egress issues and the amount of traffic we’re going to be dumping on Bermont Road,” Vieira said, adding that until the state decides to widen Bermont Road, it will be a hazard.
Voting in favor of recommending the project was Chairman Clint Baker.
“It would turn a noisy operation (motocross) into mining operation which is less noisy and then a nice lake,” Baker said.
Baker noted it is not fair to hold every new mine proposal to account for all other mining operations in the area, present and future. Farabee Mine and Shell runs a clean operation selling landscape shell, not something toxic like phosphates, he added.
This is the second mining/recreation proposal on Bermont Road to come before the county in just a few weeks. A divided County Commission approved the plans for excavation on 33150 and 32990 Bermont Road, which the developer says is in preparation for a required natural Florida landscape to accompany a future high density housing project. In response to residents’ objections to the mining, that applicant, Gary Baynes, said they would consider skipping the mining.
A few of the same residents spoke against the newest proposal that would result in a water sports park.
Allowing more mining would be turning part of the state’s protected rural regions into an industrial region, Maryann Tipton said.
Another resident, Rob Robbins, urged the board to ignore any advice suggesting that the rezone would prevent future housing.
“You have the ability to say no,” Robbins said. “It’s not safe.”
Weeks acknowledged the safety issues, but reiterated the traffic will not increase and would lead to a public benefit.
“The public is giving a legitimate concern about truck traffic,” he said, but added, “consider the benefit of the end use beyond some of the publics concerns in the interim.”