Lee County Commissioners will be holding a public mining adoption hearing this Wednesday, June 19 at 9:30 a.m. in the commission chambers in downtown Fort Myers. They’re considering changes to the county’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan that would change where lime rock mining could happen, and would remove the current requirement that means new lime rock mines can only be opened once it’s determined that there is enough demand to warrant them.
Lee Commissioners are also considering changing the Comp Plan to allow for commercial development in areas that have been designated as wetlands, although those proposed changes are still under review by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
Pro-development forces support the changes, while environmental groups say they will further degrade the county’s ecosystems and environment, including negatively impacting water quality. We're joined by Julianne Thomas, Senior Environmental Planning Specialist at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida; Richard Grosso, he is a land use and environmental law attorney, and professor at the Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale. He was commissioned by Captains for Clean Water to look over the county’s wetlands proposal.
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