1. Wal-Mart
An e-mail and fax to the County Council supports its decision to deny
and urges an appeal, for which the Ecouncil will file an Amicus Brief.
The Circuit Court judge's ruling says, as did County DRC, that Wal-Mart's
application meets the statutory criteria for granting. However, regulations
the County sets cannot meet every circumstance; frequently Council's judgment
is required. Case law in Florida appellate courts are in the County's favor.
Because Sanders has wrongly neutered the power of elected officials to
exercise discretion and decide that a giant retail operation on this site
is adverse to the public interest, this case has become an issue of community
wide and County wide concern. If the Council fails to file an appeal, even
if C44 does so, Sanders' order will become final before the District Court
can hear the appeal. Without the County's appeal, there will not be an
automatic stay and the CC must proceed with Sanders' order to accommodate
Wal-Mart's application. We beg that Council not allow the tragically ironic
possibility that C44 could win its case after Wal-Mart decimates this land.
2. US Fish and Wildlife Service
A letter went to its Jacksonville office supporting stricter manatee
protection Speed Zones, in particular for the Halifax and Tomoka Rivers,
and in general for all areas of Florida. We approached the matter of manatee
survival as a statistical problem. Correlation studies of manatee deaths
to numbers of boats have been made by others: For the period 1974 to 1996
we find the correlation coefficient for all manatee deaths to registered
boats to be 0.855, for verified boat related deaths to registered boats
to be 0.913, and surprise, for perinatal deaths to registered boats to
be 0.935. We urged the agency's attention to the cause of the high correlation
between perinatal deaths and boat registration. We found the best technique
to study the future of the
species to be Lancaster's equations. The best values of parameters
of deaths, births, and boat increase we have been able to develop show:
1) Present interaction rates indicate extinction of the manatee within
about 27 years. 2) Decreasing the death rates by 50% would give a steady
increase in manatee count, doubling in about 30 years. 3) But if boats
are also allowed to increase at 3% per year, manatee count increases by
only 25% in 20 years, then starts to fall, with species extinction in 50
years. We urged them to make at least 25 and preferably 50 year projections
for the species.
With respect to the ethics of species preservation, we asked why should humans be allowed to even threaten a species by thrill seeking, time saving or ostentatious show-off? Boats do not have to be fast to be useful or a pleasure.
3. Venetian Bay
Only ACOE's permit stands in the way of Johnson Group proceeding with phase I (294 acres) of this 1250 acre development between Pioneer Trail and SR 44. Itis disingenuous for ACOE to state that "no other phases are anticipated at this time." The policy of looking at a development piecemeal is ineffectual in determining its impact on the needs and welfare of the people. Issuance of this permit is contrary to the public interest. A subdivision with 3 miles of county land, forest, pasture, and a pollution plant between it and city services will overburden the city budget. The rest of the population will pay the bill. This development will take from the people of New Smyrna Beach their sense of a close knit community, of a compact city center with surrounding neighborhoods within close proximity. Until this annexation, the City has been tidy and orderly, free from urban sprawl. The citizens value their agricultural and rural lands, protected within the County and which may prove to be invaluable in decades to come. Venetian Bay threatens the future of those lands by setting a precedent for sprawl.
It should be noted that the Port Orange development of Cypress Head lies directly north of this property. That City, however, grew logically and incrementally. There is no empty land to the east.