Limited filling of wetlands okayed

Hillsborough officials say farmers will benefit, but opponents fear loopholes for developers.

By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
Published January 18, 2008

TAMPA - Farmers will be allowed to fill small swamps and ponds under a break approved Thursday by Hillsborough County commissioners.

Commissioners voted 5-2 to allow destruction of wetlands as large as one-half acre if the change is approved under certain state and federal programs.

Previously, the county allowed such destruction only if a farmer proved that he couldn't have "reasonable use" of his land without it.

Staffers of the county's Environmental Protection Commission said the exemptions likely will apply only to farmers converting land for row crops, affecting no more than 73 acres countywide.

But environmentalists, who spoke against the change, said the impact is being underestimated. And it contains loopholes that will allow landowners to prime their property for development, they said.

"The developers are still getting filled wetlands that they could not fill themselves," said east Hillsborough's Mariella Smith, one of the leading opponents.

But commissioners, who double as the EPC's board, said farmers are the beneficiaries.

"They are the first environmentalists," said Commissioner Jim Norman. "They care more about the land than probably anybody in this room."

Thursday's vote was rooted in a showdown in August over whether Hillsborough should abolish its wetlands rules entirely, deferring to less-stringent state regulations. That caused an outcry, so commissioners accepted a compromise commitment from the EPC staff to streamline wetland rules.

Under the changes approved Thursday, the EPC will presume that a request to destroy a wetland meets the reasonable-use test if the purpose is agricultural, excluding logging or building barns or homes. To qualify, the wetland would have to be a half acre or smaller and the requestwould have to comply with a farmland management plan approved by specified state or federal agencies. Or the wetland would have to be nonforested, isolated and a quarter acre or less.

The new rules also relieve farmers of the duty to replace destroyed wetlands of a quarter acre or smaller, but not if they were considered environmentally sensitive.

The EPC still will require mitigation where a single farm destroys several small wetlands that together exceed a half acre. And mitigation will be required if the land were converted to a non-agricultural use within five years.

Opponents weren't satisfied.

Smith convinced Commissioner Rose Ferlita that the rules will allow a developer to lease land temporarily for agricultural purposes, destroy small wetlands there, then launch the development with them out of the way. Ferlita joined Commissioner Kevin White in voting no.

[Last modified January 17, 2008, 23:48:31]