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Land use committee split on mining recommendations in Lee
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When the committee studying land uses in southeast Lee County makes its report to county commissioners, there will be dueling recommendations.
Members of the Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource committee will prepare two recommendations, one a majority view that limits new mines mostly to the Alico Road corridor and another that allows significantly more.
When county commissioners created the 15-member committee eight months ago, the board had just declared a one-year moratorium on new mine applications. There was a deep divide with residents of southeast Lee and some environmental groups on one side and miners, large landowners and road builders on the other.
There still is.
When the dozen members present at Wednesday’s all day DR/GR workshop attached their names to the various scenarios fashioned by committee consultant Dover Kohl and Associates, the split was obvious.
The scenario that restricts mining got nine votes of support and two against. The other extreme, which allows the most, received two votes of support and nine in opposition.
Those committee members on the minority were Florida Rock executive Scott McCaleb and Youngquist Brothers executive Richard Friday. There might have been a third, but committee member and consulting firm owner Dennis Gilkey, who represents landowners in the DR/GR, quit the committee early this week.
Committee member and hydrologist Kirk Martin didn’t vote, saying either approach would work with the right conditions.
Committee members were less than surprised by their split.
“I could have filled this in myself months ago,” McCaleb said.
Friday, for his part, tried pulling toward the middle.
“The word that’s always in my mind here is balance,” he said. “If (Corkscrew resident) Kevin Hill gets 100 percent of what he wants, somebody’s going to lose. If I got all I wanted. If (Steven Brown of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida) got all he wanted. Everybody is going to have to look to find a balance.”
Members did discuss Gilkey’s resignation. In a resignation letter to Commissioner Bob Janes, who appointed him, Gilkey said the proposed solutions aren’t feasible and are based on erroneous assumptions and reasoning. He said it appears the recommendations were pre-determined.
Friday has been critical, too.
“I have my disappointments, but this is the process we have,” he said.
Friday said he feels some members of the committee would prefer to have no mining at all, new or existing. He cited a scene from “Independence Day,” a popular movie in which the American president asks the alien invader how they can co-exist.
“The answer? Die,” said Friday. “There’s some of that here.”
Estero resident Don Eslick defended the process Gilkey criticized.
“Basically he impugns the Dover Kohl report, which we have largely affirmed,” he said. “He makes accusations about the way the county structured the process to create bias. I for one want to express my disagreement.”
Commissioners will hear the recommendation — now two recommendations — from the committee Aug. 1.
Demons next door? Your neighbor’s Great Dane took a nap in your flower bed and mistook the front lawn for a loo — and this was on a good day. The music next door may as well be under your bed. You’re wondering why the fruit is disappearing off your trees near someone else’s kitchen window. You have — or have had — neighbors from hell? Tell us about them. We’d like to know what neighbors drove you to the limits, and what — if it was possible with neighbors like that — solved the problem. You don’t need to give us your neighbor’s names, but we do want to hear your experiences for a story on the demons next door, and how to deal with them. Email 
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