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Development vs. environment leads to give-and-take meeting
By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 21, 2002
A quiet workshop at the Disney Wilderness Preserve near the Osceola-Polk county line featured some of the more powerful people in Florida.
One one side of the table sat top executives of the St. Joe Co., Florida's most ambitious developer. On the other side sat top regulators from the state Department of Environmental Protection, in charge of issuing permits crucial to St. Joe's plans.
They discussed how St. Joe could make up for the environmental damage its projects will cause throughout the Panhandle.
"We talked about how there must be a better way than doing it permit by permit by permit," said DEP Secretary David Struhs.
They still have no formal agreement, but they discussed setting up a single large area, perhaps amid the 70,000 acres St. Joe owns north of Panama City, where the company would restore a large wetland. It could then be sold to the state or a conservation group.
"St. Joe owns so much incredibly important land in the Panhandle that we figured, "Does it make sense to take a comprehensive look at that?' " said Bob Bendick of the Nature Conservancy, who helped put together the workshop last year. "We want to make sure the right places are protected, in exchange for permits in other places."
Robert Rhodes, St. Joe's general counsel, said preserving one large wetland would make up for filling swamps elsewhere for homes, schools and offices that St. Joe wants to build. He calls it "The Big Idea."
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