Politics & Government

Wetlands Rule Ignored to Allow Gas Station Development

Hillsborough County Commissioners determined that a marsh's destruction should not impede the proposed development, reports TBO.com.

A wetland may be destroyed to develop a Racetrac gas station and store at the southeast corner of Kings Avenue and Lumsden Road, according to TBO.com.

The Hillsborough County Commission directed zoning hearing master Steve Luce not to let the marsh's destruction impede the proposed development, according to TBO.com.

Luce then reveresed his own earlier ruling against the development, because it would destroy the wetland. Instead he agreed that the plan should go before the county commmission and and the Environmental Protection Commission for a vote in April. The EPC is composed of county commissioners.

Find out what's happening in Brandonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to TBO.com, environmental activists are stunned by the move:

"This case has been handled in a way we have never witnessed before – and we've been doing this a long time," community activist Terry Flott said in an email to those following the case. "We should all be outraged that our quasi-judicial process of zoning hearings and all the procedures that go along with that were violated."

Find out what's happening in Brandonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Flott predicted that this one small case in Brandon may set a precedent and affect all future wetlands cases in Hillsborugh County: 


"The results of this case will affect all of Hillsborough County, our entire wetlands rule, and possibly the demise of our Wetland Division of the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County," Flott said.

The comission meets April 9 at 9 a.m. for the final hearing, when the county commission will vote.

It will be on the second floor of the County Center, at 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

 


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