St. Lucie County Commissioner Cathy Townsend will host a Town Hall meeting to discuss a proposed mining operation located off Carlton Road with an entrance from the north side of Glades Cut-Off Road on Wednesday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of the Roger Poitras Annex of the County Administration Complex, 2300 Virginia Ave.
Representatives from the proposed mining operation (M Ranch) will be onsite to answer questions, along with staff members from St. Lucie County’s Public Works and Planning and Development Services Department.
The applicant is seeking to create a mining operation to produce quality fill for future development on 80 acres, with an additional 51-acres for buffering and about 33-acres for staging activities, totaling 164 acres for the entire mine site. In just a 10-mile radius of the proposed M Ranch in western St. Lucie, more than 30,000 homes have already been approved and are in varying stages of development. Soil tests revealed that high-quality fill material (soil) and base rock were present in certain locations of the M Ranch property.
The applicant states that the project will be designed to meet and/or exceed all St. Lucie County Land Development Code requirements and adhere to all Florida Department of Environmental Protection and South Florida Water Management District regulatory requirements.
Major Site Plan, Conditional Use, and Mining Permit applications will all require review and consideration by the Board of County Commissioners for approval or denial. Additionally, a Conditional Use Permit application requires two public hearings (one before the Planning and Zoning Commission and a final hearing before the Board of County Commissioners). Each Public Hearing requires public notice through the newspaper and mailing to property owners within 500 feet of the property. The applicants are also required to install a sign on the property. Conditional Use permits require a 4/5 vote of the Board of County Commissioners for approval should more than 50% of the landowners within 500 feet of the subject property line provide responses indicating they are not in favor of the proposed Conditional Use Permit. The Conditional Use Permit application will be heard by the Board of County Commissioners prior to or concurrent with the mining permit.
The hearings for these applications have not been scheduled, however, St. Lucie County’s Planning & Development staff will continue to keep residents updated through the progression of the project.
Residents with questions or concerns about this project are encouraged to attend the Town Hall on Wednesday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m. For those unable to attend, the meeting will be televised and streamed live on SLCTV (Comcast 28/U-Vere 99) and online at www.stlucieco.gov. Residents can submit feedback to St. Lucie County Senior Planner Jodi Kugler at NentwickJ@stlucieco.org.
