The citizens committee working on the revision of the 10-year management plan has agreed to change the format to bring more clarity to the different areas that are contained in the current plan. The new plan will have three goals that contain objectives to be achieved. They are 1) Public Access & Recreational Enjoyment, 2) Natural Resource Stewardship and 3) Public Awareness & Site Preservation. The next
meeting will be held Tuesday May 21 at 10 a.m. at the Office of Resource Stewardship, 1907 South Monroe. It will start with an hour long presentation regarding the Dempsey Mayo road crossing and roundabout and after that the plan workshop will begin. The meeting is open to the public so I encourage you to attend. There is another activity involving the greenway that is being conducted by the Friends of the Miccosukee Greenway (FMG), a 501 C3 organization. The issue of most concern is the 4 road easements that were contained in the deed when the state bought the land. The first road crossing is Dempsey Mayo and it is now in the permitting stage. It contains a roundabout at Miccosukee Road with no stop lights, a dangerous arrangement for park users. FMG has proposed an amendment to the Canopy Road Protection Ordinance and pointed out the Comp Plan allows for “special regulatory measures…where special conditions are present”. This would acknowledge that road and intersection designs are special conditions, especially since the Miccosukee Greenway is in the same corridor. Residents live on all sides of the greenway in Districts 4 and 5. FMG wants to create a Miccosukee Greenway and Canopy Road Protection Corridor that allows for special conditions in road design. It would run from Dempsey Mayo to Kimberly Circle, or the full length of the 6-mile greenway. Rob Lombardo, FMG President, organized a kick-off for this effort at Edenfield Trailhead on May 11. Equestrians were the largest interest group in attendance. Special thanks go to the following for their attendance: Individuals with horses: Regine Kraft, Suzanne Lane, Chris Littlefield, Sue Noyes, David Reigner, Gayle Spellman, Nancy Stephens, Susan Tuttle and Linda Vause. On foot: Megan Altavilla, Brett Barteld, Tina Brown, Joanie Elder, Nancy Isenberg, Gaye and Jeff Johnson, Pam Springer and Wendy Trawick. Please see the picture included with this report. The next step is to get the county commission to recognize the need for this protection corridor. This effort began at their May 14 county commission meeting and there were 23 people from the FMG group in attendance with signs. Sue Noyes, Nancy Stephens and Linda Vause spoke about the need to protect the greenway as well as other FMG members. After comments, the commissioners had a healthy discussion about the issue. A motion made by David O’Keefe (who is on the management plan committee) was seconded by Rick Minor to send this issue to staff to prepare language to address the questions and issues presented by the Friends supporters including roads through the greenway as a special condition in the Canopy Road Protection Ordinance. The motion passed unanimously. It is unknown how much time staff will need to complete this task.
Submitted by Sue N.