Lucas: FDEP Violation suspected in Gabbert WTF proposal process

Date: 11/19/19

To: County Commissioners / Planning Department / Florida Department of Environmental Services / Sarasota Press Outlets

cc: County Staff Contact: Donna LaDue / The Sarasota County Board of Zoning Appeals Members: Mr. Arthur, Mr. Malatesta, Mr. Mast, Mr. Piatchuk, Mr. Powell, Mr. Radauskas, Mr. Taylor, Sarasota Community Groups on Facebook, Anyone who is interested in how criminal development in Sarasota continues to be

From: Adrien Lucas

Re: Zoning Appeal 19-155651 ZZ: a request by TST Ventures LLC

Last night I attended the Zoning Appeal meeting for TST Ventures LLC and spoke to the Zoning Appeal board asking them to uphold Zoning Administrator Donna Thompson’s recommendations regarding Mr. Gabbert’s appeal to Ms. Thompson’s interpretation that a modification of the stormwater pond is a substantial modification to the binding concept plan and the approved Special Exception will need to be amended. 

While I did not go to the meeting expecting Mr. Gabbert to announce he would not build his WTF or to  miraculously realize that his open air Waste Transfer Facility:

• will introduce daily trips of uncountable diesel semis and trucks driving in and out of his facility; or that Gabbert’s own fleet, will create an incredible carbon footprint in a county where air quality is already documented as less than stellar for healthy breathing; 
• Or that he would even acknowledge that his WTF is located at the headwaters of the Phillippi Creek and the particulates from construction material such as asbestos, lead paint, fiberglass, and who knows what else cancer causing agents will be filtered through waterway channels from his WTF, down Phillippi Creek, into Robert’s Way (where Gabbert lives) and into the struggling Gulf of Mexico.
  

I could go on about environmental concerns but I have learned from the get go that almost no one in the Sarasota County Commission (past and present board members) and almost no one in the Planning Board Commission or Zoning Appeal Commission give a rat’s bottom about environmental science that affects the welfare and safety of our Sarasota community. Attorney Merrill, Mr. Gabbert, Bo Medred and some of the Board members act like they know all about stormwater ponds, filtering systems, etc. and yet most of them do not have degrees in these types of sciences. But if they did, would our Gulf of Mexico be entering into a Failing Level of Service as far as being safe water to swim or eat in? But I digress, afterall, these elected officials and board members are truely sage men of development industry, they do know better, don’t they?

So what I did expect at last night’s Zoning Appeal meeting was the acknowledgement that our county and Mr. Gabbert have broken rules time and time again to suit developments that essentially would not exist if county and state protocol had been followed.

Remember Restaurant Depot? I do. County Attorney Alan Roddy (and this is on county video and in a court transcript), when it was clear that the county was breaking the Sarasota County Charter (our county constitution) by not requiring Restaurant Depot to disclose the owners of the LLC’s listed to buy county owned Celery Field Quad Properties, Alan Roddy responded “we do this all the time, we have done this before.” He openly admitted before a full house of witnesses that the county breaks the Sarasota Charter “All of the time.” Fortunately, the sale didn’t occur with Restaurant Depot, but the only reason the sale did not go through was because there were many constituents who were watching and refusing to let the Charter be broken.

Last night at the Zoning Appeal meeting I presented irrefutable information that Mr. Gabbert, his engineer Weber Engineering had lied on a document from submitted to the FDEP.

Per the SRQ Public Good blog:

At the Board of Zoning Appeals last evening, the final vote sided with William W. Merrill III, James Gabbert, Bo Medred, and Jon Mast against County Zoning Administrator Donna Thompson. Ms.Thompson had ruled that Mr. Gabbert needed to get the County Commission's approval for two changes to the site design of his WTF. One of seven realtors, builders and architects on the BZA, Jon Mast is CEO of the Manatee Sarasota Building Industry Association. He deftly turned the Board around. At first the vote was 4-3 for Ms. Thompson's ruling, and against Gabbert. Mast then asked to "amend" the motion, and amended it so far as to fully approve Mr. Gabbert's appeal. Gabbert's new stormwater plan was unclear, without dimensions or even a structural drawings. The Board partly based its changed vote on answers to technical stormwater questions answered not by an independent expert or County stormwater engineer, but by Merrill III and Gabbert himself. So it is with all our Boards - the applicant is the authority. What a departure from Sarasota's enlightened past.

Board Member Mast kept insisting that “We do these types of exceptions all the time.” The problem is this isn’t just any exception. This is an open air WTF and Mr. Gabbert always had the intention of being the Waste King off of Palmer Boulevard, with not only his WTF but also his failed attempt to build a recycling dump. So Mr. Mast is wrong, entirely wrong, because the exception pushed Mr. Gabbert to change his build out plans for his WTF because by losing out on the Quad parcel, it was impossible for trucks to enter and leave his WTF without that extra acreage. With that he has had to modifiy and move his stormwater plans which I find to be completely incompatable with the area, especially now that we know the Quad parcels are going to be preserved.

But hey, “We do this all the time” and that is what is wrong with Sarasota government and development. [Ed.'s note: See for example this illustration of Mr. Gabbert's campaign "donations" to the Board.]

Below is the statement I read to the Zoning Appeal Board Members. Included are pictures of what I handed to them. 

I will be filing an investigation complaint with the Florida Department of Environmental Services but I have learned to expect nothing when it comes to ethics in Florida pertaining to honesty, due diligence and following protocol.

Date: 11/18/19

To: The Sarasota County Board of Zoning Appeals Members: Mr. Arthur, Mr. Malatesta, Mr. Mast, Mr. Piatchuk, Mr. Powell, Mr. Radauskas, Mr. Taylor

cc: County Staff Contact: Donna LaDue / County Commissioners / Planning Department / Sarasota Press Outlets

From: Adrien Lucas

Re: Zoning Appeal 19-155651 ZZ: a request by TST Ventures LLC to appeal a Zoning Administrator's interpretation letter dated August 28, 2019, interpreting that the modification of the stormwater pond is a substantial modification to the binding concept plan and the approved Special Exception will need to be amended. The property is zoned Industrial, Light Manufacturing and Warehousing (ILW) and is located at 6150 Palmer Boulevard and 1099 Porter Road, Sarasota (Parcel ID No. 0237050001 and 0237120001). Willam W. Merrill, Esquire, Agent

Documents Attached:

9/19/19 Drainage Calculations cover page submitted to SRQ County from Weber Engineering 

5/9/16 TST Ventures Letter of Interest - 10.3 acres on SW corner of Palmer Blvd. & Apex Rd.

9/2/16 Self Certification form submitted to FDEP from Weber Engineering

The Weber Engineering packet submitted to the county on September 9, 2019 titled “Drainage Calculations” for 6150 Palmer Boulevard included a letter dated September 16, 2016 from the FDEP regarding “Self Certification for a Stormwater Management System...” and Mr. Weber submitted the certification specifically and only for the privately purchased 4.27 acres that Mr. Gabbert is developing his WTF on.

Lawrence Weber certified through the Department’s Enterprise Self-Service Application portal that the TST Ventures project was designed by the above named Florida registered professional to meet the following requirements and lists:

Item No. 5 - The project is not part of a larger common plan, development, or sale; 

But that was not a truthful submission. On May 9, 2016 TST Ventures submitted a letter of interest to the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners to buy 10.3 acres of county owned surplus land on the SW corner of Palmer & Apex Road in order to allow a Construction and Demolition debris recycling facility to serve the residents of Sarasota County.

Weber Engineering "certification"

This means that the submitted project to the FDEP was presented falsely and was part of a larger common plan, development, or sale as and was submitted, four months before the September 16, 2016 letter from the FDEP. 

TST  Ventures (Gabbert) letter of interest May 9, 2016

I am asking the Board of Zoning appeals to uphold Zoning Administrator Donna Thompson’s recommendations regarding today’s zoning appeal for TST Ventures and let this go before the Board of County Commission for a decision. Any modification not specifically listed would require an amendment to the Concept Plan approved by the County Commission.

The State of Florida and Sarasota county development protocol exist for a reason. We, the people, should be able to trust that due diligence is applied to all development projects of such importance; especially a waste transfer facility (and Mr. Gabbert’s denied potential dump)  being on top of the headwaters of the Phillippi Creek.

Time and time again, TST Ventures has put the cart in front of the horse regarding building out his WTF. What else exists with the current build out to the WTF that is being rushed?

We will be conducting a forensic file search on everything submitted for the WTF with county documents.

How can we trust that the FDEP form submitted by Weber Engineering is correct regarding: 

That Item No. 6. The project does not:

1. Cause adverse water quantity or flooding impacts to receiving water and adjacent lands; 
2. Cause adverse impacts to existing surface water storage and conveyance capabilities;
3. Cause a violation of state water quality standards; or
4. Cause an adverse impact to the maintenance of surface and ground water levels or surface water flows 

We cannot trust the above to be true without substantial background materials that are really unknowns. 

With super storms staying not 24 hours but up to 72 hours hovering over smaller areas of land, it is awful to think of what awaits the untested Celery Field stormwater retention facility and the WTF being built on this unsuitable parcel for an open air construction waste transfer facility.

I am neither an attorney nor an engineer but I can assure you, the long trail of documents submitted to the County for Mr. Gabbert’s WTF provide little insight on numerous unanswered questions, especially when it comes to Mr. Gabbert’s assurance that his WTF will be able to keep the people and waters of Sarasota County healthy. 

Respectfully,

Adrien Lucas