By Lidia Dinkova
December 23, 2016
TC Palm
MARTIN COUNTY — The county has been asked to loosen its environmental protections to allow developers to build on some smaller wetlands.
Land-planner Don Cuozzo has asked the county to allow developers to build on wetlands that are a half-acre or smaller in unincorporated Martin County but within the urban-service district. The urban-service district is an area where more development is allowed and has the infrastructure, such as water and sewer, to support it.
This would be a significant change to current Martin regulations, which protect wetlands regardless of size or type, although there are some exceptions, said Irene Szedlmayer, Martin growth-management department senior planner. An example of an exception would be when building a power line and there’s no alternative but to impact a wetland. In exchange, either a new wetland has to be created or money has to be put in a fund meant to pay for new wetlands, Szedlmayer said.
Cuozzo said the change is needed because there’s little developable land left in the urban-service district and what’s left has small wetlands.
If protections are eased, environmentalists cautioned of negative impacts, including more pollution in the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
It could lead to, among other things, loss of wildlife habitat for birds that forage for food in small wetlands and possibly more pollution in the estuary because wetlands trap pollutants in stormwater before the runoff drains into the ground or estuary, said both Maggy Hurchalla, a former county commissioner, and Eric Draper, executive director of the nonprofit conservation advocacy Audubon Florida.
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