PARKING PROVIDER UNDER NEW SCRUTINY
Orange, water district probe wetlands destruction
As Park, Bark and Fly was being fined $200,000 last year by the state for wetlands violations, the parking provider near Orlando’s airport was destroying more wetlands illegally, according to Orange County investigators.
Alerted to Park, Bark and Fly activities by an anonymous complaint, the county is now seeking to fine the company $80,000.
“We knew they knew better,” said Liz Johnson, assistant manager at the county’s Environmental Protection Division.
The $200,000 fine, imposed in October by the St. Johns River Water Management District, was for unauthorized destruction of 2 acres of wetlands more than a decade ago. The expert hired by Park, Bark and Fly to deal with the water-district regulations is Bio-Tech Consulting of Orlando, whose president is John Miklos. He also is the water district chairman.
Park, Bark and Fly did not respond to a request for comment. Miklos declined to comment, as did the agency director with whom he works, Ann Shortelle.
The water district staff confirmed Wednesday it is investigating Park, Bark and Fly, having been alerted by Orange County’s actions.
Orange County, the water district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, respectively and independently, enforce local, state and federal regulations for protection of wetlands. Often, a devel-
oper or business must obtain separate permits from all three entities and will coordinate with them for the most efficient outcomes.
Situated just west of State Road 436, Park, Bark and Fly engaged with the water district but did not follow through with Orange County or the Corps of Engineers after preliminary inquiries last year about permit needs.
The water district’s $200,000 fine was to have ended years of legal skirmishing with the parking company since 2005 and set the stage for the water district to consider a permit for destruction of another 28 acres of wetlands at the company. The permit would allow for expanded parking.
Yet as the district on Oct. 10 was imposing the fine and initially raising the possibility of the permit, the county already had received an anonymous complaint about wetlands destruction. Johnson said the call came Sept. 22.
Satellite images obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show that forested wetlands were being removed by May, with the downing of trees and plowing of soil extensive by August.
Johnson said after the call, investigators tried repeatedly to access Park, Bark and Fly property but were turned away.
On Jan. 23, the St. Johns River Water Management District issued the 28-acre wetlands permit to Park, Bark and Fly. The next day, a county investigator was admitted to the scene of wetlands destruction.
Johnson said her division’s preliminary estimate was that 5 acres of wetlands had been cut down and filled. The county may consider requiring repairs to the wetlands damage, rather than issuing afterthe-fact permission for the destruction, she said.
Johnson said that from the county’s perspective, Park, Bark and Fly already has been given significant permissions in past years to situate the business in an otherwise soggy terrain. Getting further permission to destroy wetlands may prove to be a hard sell with Orange County, she said.
In line with that, Charles Lee of Audubon Florida criticized the water management district as irresponsible for issuing a state permit to destroy 28 acres of wetlands he described as “big and bold and wet” and heavily used as a bird roost.
A standard requirement to obtain a wetlands-destruction permit in Florida is that wetland losses from development must be offset by environmental gains elsewhere.
In order to get the 28-acre permit that was issued last month by the water district, the compensation offered by Park, Bark and Fly and arranged by Bio-Tech involves the parking company buying and protecting 86 acres of forest — not in Orange County but 40 miles away in Volusia County. That land is to be donated to the water district for a “regionally significant” conservation project.
The donation of Volusia forest as compensation for damage to Orange wetlands was allowed under a decades-old quirk in water-district rules that contrast with local and federal requirements.
The county stresses wetland losses must be compensated within the county. The Corps of Engineers requires that wetland losses be compensated in the drainage system where the damage occurs; with Park, Bark and Fly, the damage is to Boggy Creek in south Orange County.
Bio-Tech has had a role in that regionally significant project in Volusia since at least 2011, when the water district bought some of the Volusia forest.
Miklos opted out of the water district vote to buy the land because, he stated on a conflict-of-interest form, “my firm represents seller on environmental issues.” The seller was a limited-liability company that had purchased the land from a timber company.
The 86 acres of Volusia forest being bought by Park, Bark and Fly for an undisclosed amount would have cost $466,894 in 2011, according to a district appraisal then.
Under Corps permitting rules, and under usual district rules, Park, Bark and Fly likely would have had to pay to protect wetlands in a private “mitigation bank” for nearly $2.5 million.