This summary is adapted from a version provided in,"An Inventory of Conservation Easements in Bay County, Florida" Prepared by: Neil J. Lamb, Ph.D. Edwin J. Keppner, Ph.D. Co-Chair Conservation Committee and Conservation Committee Bay County Audubon Society Bay County Audubon Society For: The Bay County Audubon Society, Inc. December 2004.
The Bay County Board of County Commissioners, the local airport authority, and the St. Joe Company agreed to use the Optional Sector planning process as a method of planning development for the approximately 75,000 acres of land north of West Bay. If brought to a successful conclusion, the Optional Sector planning process will result in about 40,000 acres of land around West Bay being used for mitigation for development in wetlands and for preservation purposes.
In the southwestern part of Bay County, the St. Joe Company has cooperated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) in developing a Regional General Permit (RGP) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in developing an Ecosystem Management Permit (EMP) for development in wetlands extending from Highway 79 westward into Walton County. If issued, these two regulatory permits will place an additional approximately 7,200 acres of land as mitigation land or preservation land in the southwestern part of Bay County. According to the COE, these preserved lands will be the subject of DEP conservation easements as the phases of the permits are initiated and/or completed. The process of the permits phases is not important here. The fact that there will be DEP conservation easements placed on these properties is important.
Lastly, the St. Joe Company has a development agreement with Bay County for their River Camps project along West Bay from the west side of Crooked Creek to Highway 79 and south of Highway 388. This area contains a large proportion of wetlands, and it is our understanding that about 121 separate conservation easements have been placed on about 721.11 acres of this area. A strip of land (buffer) along the western shore line of Crooked Creek is also involved as a buffer for the creek. The Crooked Creek buffer will be about 550 feet wide and extend from the mouth of the creek north to the bridge at Highway 388 with some incursions into the buffer to be allowed.
The remainder of Bay County has not been the subject of an Optional Sector planning process. Therefore, development is occurring and will occur subject to the normal procedures of state, federal, and local agencies with jurisdiction over proposed development. The normal procedures evaluate development case by case rather than planning for a large area as occurred during the Optional Sector Plan and the state and federal permits mentioned above.
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