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State agency changes stand on condos
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer HOMOSASSA -- A key state agency is withdrawing its support for the Halls River Retreat project, echoing opponents' concerns that the time share complex would bring "intensive boat use" to an essential manatee habitat. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wrote a letter last week in which it said the developer's plans for an 18-slip marina appear to be inconsistent with the county's Manatee Protection Plan, which advises against new or expanding commercial boating facilities along the Homosassa River. The manatee plan allows for new residential docks, and developer F. Blake Longacre pitched his project as a multifamily housing complex. But after further review, the state agency said the 54-unit time share condominiums, with six owners each, would add boat traffic more akin to a commercial facility. "The (Manatee Protection Plan) recommends against new intensive boat use in the Homosassa River (it discourages commercial marinas); therefore, it is also reasonable to assume that the plan would have recommended against a shared vacation condominium that also would produce intensive boat use," wrote Bradley Hartman, director of the agency's Office of Environmental Sciences. Hartman suggests the marina be reduced from 18 boat slips to just a few boats along the canal. The agency is one of several that initially supported the condo project permits granted by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers. At the prodding of the Save the Homosassa River Alliance, the group spearheading the fight against the condos, Fish and Wildlife officials gave the plans a closer, second look in recent months. For the first time, they actually visited the 11-acre site. Previously, they relied on documents from the developer. The agency's change of heart does not doom the project, but the four-page letter signals the first major victory for the Halls River Retreat opponents, who hope the red flags raised by Fish and Wildlife will spark new reviews by other agencies. "This is what we've been waiting for: someone to step up to the plate and say this is wrong, we were given erroneous information and we shouldn't have given our approval," said Winston Perry, a member of the Homosassa River Alliance. Officials at Swiftmud and the Army Corps are reviewing the June 19 letter to see whether it should affect the permits they granted. The Homosassa River Alliance has a separate challenge pending against the Swiftmud permit. "It certainly raises some concerns," Swiftmud spokesman Michael Molligan said Tuesday. "We have to have time to review and digest the information in there. Certainly, we're interested in understanding what they're saying to see if it warrants some change." Longacre said he was "flabbergasted" by the letter and was confident it would not affect his permits for the project. "We as the applicant were never contacted at all by Florida Fish and Wildlife prior to the issuance of that letter to discuss any of the outlandish items contained in the letter," said Longacre, who plans to file a response. "For them to send out a letter like that without ever having called or talked to us or questioned us is unfathomable in my opinion, and it is not founded in fact," he said. Florida Fish and Wildlife supported Longacre's plans for an 18- to 20-slip marina last year because the Manatee Protection Plan allows one residential boat slip per 100 feet of shoreline. Including the canal, the Halls River Retreat site has 1,860 feet of shoreline. Hartman's letter says the agency relied on drawings from Longacre's engineer, Burrell Engineering, which showed nine boats docked at the end of the existing canal and two more in a boat slip along the river. But after visiting the site for themselves, Fish and Wildlife officials concluded the drawings were misleading. "It appears from our site visit, as well as photographs submitted by concerned residents, that nine boats would not fit in the area depicted in the drawing, unless they were extremely small (possibly dingy sized)," Hartman wrote. "In addition, it appears that it would be difficult to moor boats on both sides of the canal due to its width, if boats were moored parallel to the existing seawall." That means Longacre would have to widen the canal to fit 18 boats there, not just "reconfigure" the boat basin as his permit application states, Hartman wrote. Noting that about 205 manatees pass the mouth of the Halls River on their way to the Blue Waters habitat, Hartman said his agency could not support a plan to add more boats to the river by widening the canal. "In our original assessment, we erroneously assumed that the proposed project was not substantially increasing the number of boats above the existing capacity of the facility," Hartman wrote. Fish and Wildlife officials aren't the only ones taking a closer look at the Halls River Retreat project. Swiftmud plans to send a consultant to use ground penetrating radar on the site to determine where the limestone sits between the water table and the surface, spokesman Molligan said. County planners have said the water table is less than a foot beneath the surface, but Swiftmud wants the developer to maintain at least 2 feet of dirt between the limestone and the drainage retention areas, he said. "The only way you can stay 2 feet above it is to know exactly where it is," Molligan said. The state Department of Community Affairs has requested additional information about the project, which sits in a flood zone where the Comprehensive Plan is supposed to limit growth. And the Homosassa River Alliance -- a group that has grown from about 50 members to more than 1,000 in the course of its Halls River Retreat fight -- is asking the Army Corps to take a closer look, too. "Everyone who signs off on this, they all have to agree this is in the public interest," the standard for allowing a project that affects an Outstanding Florida Waterway such as the Halls River, said Homosassa River Alliance president Ron Miller. "That is just a picture that is hard for me to paint when we have thousands of people saying, 'Don't do it, don't do it."' -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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