Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Officials start a clock ticking toward a showdown with a property owner about a wood-burning operation.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 29, 2002
LECANTO -- County officials sent Ed Gerrits a notice of violation Friday for operating a wood-burning incinerator without county approval, starting a process that could take Gerrits to the Code Enforcement Board to face possible fines.
The notice of violation does not shut down the 2,500-degree incinerator at Gerrits' estate on County Road 495, a couple of miles north of Crystal River.
But it starts a 14-day countdown for Gerrits and his son Sean, whose company SMG Inc. owns the incinerator, to come into compliance or face code enforcement.
"He has two choices: either turn it off or obtain (county) permits," said Gary Maidhof, the county's director of Development Services. "In this particular case, you can't get permits where it is located (because the property is zoned for rural residential use, which does not allow incinerators), so that would mean moving it."
Ed Gerrits, who referred all questions to his attorneys, is weighing his options.
"We believe there's no violation, and we will respond accordingly," Gerrits' attorney Larry Haag said.
The air curtain incinerator is a three-sided box that is 30 feet long and 9 feet wide. A high-powered fan swirls air above the flames, making the fire burn hotter and cleaner.
Maidhof's two-page notice of violation charges Gerrits for not having a county development permit to install and operate the incinerator, which burns dried tree branches from Gerrits' lumber tracts and other lots cleared for construction.
It also charges Gerrits for accepting tree debris from off-site properties without county approval to operate as a commercial recycling center or a construction and demolition debris facility.
Ed and Sean Gerrits, who have a state Department of Environmental Protection permit for the incinerator, have said they do not need county approval. They say the incinerator is part of their family's longstanding forestry operations and therefore is exempt from local regulations under the Florida Right to Farm Act.
The statute bars local governments from restricting the activity of a "bona fide farm," a term that includes trees and the machines that process them.
But the county has said the Right to Farm Act doesn't apply here. The act does not allow a farm to switch to more intense operations if it sits next to a home or business that has been there since 1982.
County officials have also said the incinerator is not entirely for agricultural use, since Gerrits charges a fee to accept tree debris from lots cleared for construction.
Chuck Dixon, the county's Community Development director, sent a letter May 22 to Gerrits explaining the county's position. The letter gave Gerrits 30 days to seek a resolution or face a notice of violation, which triggers the code enforcement process.
Haag said Gerrits is still considering his options, which include requesting industrial zoning for the land around the incinerator or challenging the county's ruling.
-- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.