St. Augustine Conservation Zones Are Based On 13-Year Old "Out of Date" Data -- Who's Protecting Wetlands?

The February 25, 2008 E-mail from Teresa Monson of St. Johns River Water Mgt Dist (bel0w) was not shared with City Commissioners by the City Clerk, City Manager and City Attorney of St. Augustine. Citizens were forbidden to talk, while the speculator's lawyher spun cobwebs of new evidence that ensnared two of the Commissioners.
It is disturbing enough that our Nation's Oldest City's conservation zones are based on old data.
Yet when I handed the E-mail to City Clerk KAREN ROGERFS, overbearing City Attorney RONALD BROWN and out-of-control City Mis-manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS would noi suffer ROGERS or anyone else to hand this E-mail to the five Commissioners. Earlier efforts to raise the concern about the basis of the conservation zones with one of the PZB members were unavailing.
The E-mail was not meant for them to read and hold onto -- as Cordell Hull said, "gentlemen do not read each other's mail. ROGERS, BROWN and HARRISS owe Commissioners (Iand me) an apology.
Our City makes decisions based on unsound science or no science at all.
Its officials thought it cute to

What we have here3 is a failure to communicate.
Here is the E-mail that the only three officials hired directly by City Commission refused to share with Commissioners before they discussed and voted upon the two million cubic foot boat warehouse in Lincolnville.

Ed,



As you noted, the “City of St. Augustine Conservation Overlay Zones” map is not a District map. It states that the District was the source of data. Our GIS staff believe this map to be based on 1994 data. If so, it's very out of date.



Staff say it is not immediately obvious what dataset this is, but it is not a currently active layer, nor is it one we update. The District has never had a layer called “conservation zones.”



Regardless, the District only produce these kind of datasets as planning tools. They are never intended to replace site-specific determinations. Also, what is accurate at a general (Districtwide) scale may not always be accurate at this fine a scale.


I hope this helps answer your question.



Teresa



Teresa H. Monson

Senior Communications Specialist

St. Johns River Water Management District

Jacksonville Service Center

7775 Baymeadows Way, Suite 102

Jacksonville, FL 32256

(904) 730-6258 (office)

(904) 545-5064 (cell)