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Seeking approval from the water district, the county alters its proposal for a swimming area in Weekiwachee Preserve.
By DAN DeWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2002
BROOKSVILLE -- Hernando County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District reached a compromise Thursday on what has turned out to be a surprisingly controversial and time-consuming project: building a public swimming area in the abandoned mining pits at the Weekiwachee Preserve.
The county agreed to significantly change its original plans for the park -- called Pedersen Park -- which included a 400-space asphalt parking lot that the water district opposed.
The lot will now include 250 spaces to be divided into several sections separated by peninsulas covered with native plants, said Pat Fagan, the county's parks and recreation director. Portions of the parking lot will be covered with a porous surface. A diving platform and water slide the county wanted have also been cut from the proposal.
Including a buffer that Swiftmud requested between the parking area and the start of a walking trail, the developed part of the park will cover 15 acres of the 30 the district had set aside for the project, said Michael Molligan, a district spokesman.
"We're trying to get the parking closer to the beach and create a buffer between the parking area and the trailhead," Molligan said. He also said that although the district had reached a compromise with the county on these issues, it had not approved a park plan.
Despite this, Fagan said he was confident that the consultant, Tampa Bay Engineering Inc., would have plans to show the county's Environmentally Sensitive Land Committee in about three weeks and the County Commission before Sept. 1.
The park will be off Shoal Line Boulevard, on the western edge of the preserve, which covers about 9,500 acres.
Fagan said he had been frustrated when Swiftmud objected to parts of the original plan two months ago. Now, he said, he is glad it did. The resulting negotiations have produced a better overall plan.
"It's going to be a beautiful park and it's something the public can be proud of," Fagan said.
Not everyone agrees.
Two opposing views have emerged in recent weeks: one concerned about the environmental harm of the current plan, the other offering an idea that both the county and the district say would be far more damaging.
"We're saying it should not be in the preserve at all," said Arline Erdrich of the Coalition for Anti-Urban Sprawl and the Environment.
She suggested building a swimming area, probably a pool, at Hernando Beach Park, which is about 3 miles north of the proposed site of Pedersen Park. She said the park, as it is presently envisioned, discredited its namesake, Linda Pedersen, an environmental activist who died in a car accident two years ago.
Hernando Beach Park is large and underused, she said, and it is senseless for the county to build duplicate facilities a few miles south in a preserve intended for wild animals.
The opposite view was expressed at a recent commission meeting by County Commissioner Mary Aiken. She said residents of Hernando Beach and Hernando Beach South, which is directly across Shoal Line from the entrance to Pedersen Park, are concerned about traffic and parking problems.
She proposed moving the park to the end of an existing paved road that enters the preserve from Osowaw Boulevard.
"I just feel it should be built along that large lake of Osowaw and I think that would solve a lot of problems," Aiken said.
But Fagan said that was out of the question because it would put the artificial beach in the middle of a bear habitat.
He also doubted that Erdrich's suggestion would be seriously considered. Money is available because of a longstanding agreement between the county and Swiftmud, which manages the preserve. This specifically commits the county to building the park in the preserve, he said.
"The park is definitely going in," Fagan said.