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Efforts to Change Rock Mining Permitting Process & Commercial Development on Wetlands in Lee County

Southweset Florida Lime Rock Mining Map
Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Southweset Florida Lime Rock Mining Map

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.

Copyright 2019 WGCU

Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.