Groups, individuals challenge Florida Panhandle airport land-use plans

Posted on Thu, Mar. 25, 2004 
 
Groups, individuals challenge Panhandle airport
land-use plans
Associated Press


PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Three groups and two individuals
are challenging land-use plans for a new airport
opposed by most Bay County voters in a straw ballot.

The Sierra Club, Citizens for the Bay, Panhandle
Citizens Coalition, Tonja Haynes and Diane Brown filed
a joint appeal with the state Division of
Administrative Hearings.

They contend two specific area plans for the airport
and surrounding property totaling about 75,000 acres
violate Bay County's comprehensive land-use plan and
the state growth-management laws.

"The airport will be placed on some of the most
environmentally sensitive lands in the region," said
Dan Hendrickson, legal chairman for the Florida
Chapter Sierra Club.

The administrative appeal, filed Tuesday, could take
six months or more. The case then can be taken to the
1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee.

Voters rejected the airport by a margin of 54 to 46
percent March 9. The result, however, is not binding
on a city-county airport authority, which plans to
await a Federal Aviation Administration report next
year before deciding whether to halt the project.

It would move the Panama City-Bay County International
Airport to a 4,000-acre site donated by
Jacksonville-based St. Joe Co., Florida's largest
private landowner.

St. Joe officials, Gov. Jeb Bush and other supporters
say the new airport would attract business and jobs to
the Florida Panhandle. St. Joe also plans to develop
16,000 acres around the airport with homes, businesses
and industry. About 37,000 acres are earmarked for
preservation.

Opponents argue the present airport is underused and
moving it would mainly benefit St. Joe at a cost of
more than $200 million to taxpayers.

County commissioners adopted the area plans in
December. They were approved last month by the Florida
Department of Community Affairs.

"This I think has received more scrutiny than any
comprehensive plan amendment in the history of Bay
County," said St. Joe strategic planning director
Billy Buzzett. "I think it will sustain any scrutiny
by any judge."

Buzzett said the challenge would delay but not stop
development. St. Joe plans to begin the first of three
development phases before relocation. If it falls
through the other phases would be canceled.

"This lawsuit is frivolous and a waste of taxpayers'
money," said Ed Wright, chairman of the pro-airport
group Partners in Progress and dean of Florida State
University's Panama City campus.

In other action related to St. Joe, the state
Department of Environmental Protection has extended a
deadline for objecting to a new wetlands permitting
procedure until April 2. The original deadline was
last week.

The procedure would allow construction on parts of
31,350 acres of St. Joe-owned property in Bay and
Walton counties west of the airport site without
individual wetlands permits. The company instead would
have to follow general restrictions designed to
conserve 20,760 acres.

 

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