by SC Reporter Wendy McMullen
Mathew DePaolis, Environmental Policy Director at the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, made the organization’s policy clear on the proposed development in Sanibel Bayous subdivision at the planning commission meeting on May 9.
“People have been coming to me and saying, oh, it’s interesting that SCCF supports this development. And it’s not that SCCF supports this development. SCCF isn’t really in the position of supporting new developments on Sanibel,” he pointed out.
But he added that the environmental organization would not oppose the development if it is built so that polluted soil from a former sewage treatment plant was not excavated during the construction.
Paolis explained that a great deal of polluted soil had already been removed from the project and taken to Henry County where it was dealt with as a polluted soil, but that some remained deeper in the ground.
“When the applicant was previously reporting, they said that there wouldn’t be any excavation so there’s no risk of disturbing some of those deeper polluted soils that could or could not still be down there,” he said. “However, if any excavation was occurring during this project I would really like to see some testing being done on some of those deeper soils.”
The Sanibel Planning Commission had previously approved the plan to put six cluster homes on two large lots on the site bordering Sanibel-Captiva Road, but the city council voted at their last meeting to send it back to the commission to ensure that the board had interpreted the Sanibel Land Development Code correctly.
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