Waterside dump project site at Charlotte Commission on July 28
The approval for a site restoration plan for a 300-acre former orange grove in the eastern part of Charlotte County on Bermont Road will have a public hearing at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28 at the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners meeting.
The project is entitled DRC-25-075-Waterside Restoration Project. It is to “Approve a Resolution for a PD Final Detail Site Plan application for the Waterside Restoration project to allow for the restoration of an existing grove to a preserve with native vegetation, which complies with the requirements of adopted Ordinance No. 2023-020. This project site is 293.31± acres and is located at 33150 and 32990 Bermont Road, in the East County area.”
The site, under the name Waterside Recycling, took debris from Hurricanes Ian, Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton. Approximately 250 acres of the site formerly operated as a commercial citrus grove until it was shut down.
The restoration area consists of approximately 63 acres, with a goal of restoring native habitat as part of Waterside Yard Trash Disposal and Composting Facility.
It came up previously at a May meeting of the Commission, when a long line of speakers came to discuss conditions in what was once a quiet rural area.
Charlotte water quality advocates, including Percy Angelo, have criticized the project. They say the development was presented to county officials as a restoration project to remove contaminated soil from a former orange grove, but it was instead operating as an unapproved mining and solid-waste disposal operation.
“Serious issues arose at the May hearing in this matter and following the hearing the Applicant filed additional documentation which clarified and emphasized the concerns raised,” Angelo wrote to the commission in advance of the meeting. “I’m writing to ask you to deny the pending request and to remedy a central and material misrepresentation underlying this illegal Planned Development.”
The critics also contend that the County’s Planned Development process allowed the applicant and county staff to work around standard zoning and permitting requirements for mining and landfills. They say the County Commission and the public were not fully informed about the site’s waste-disposal activities when the project was approved. They are asking the Commission to reject the final site plan, investigate whether the operation is being conducted without required approvals and consider whether the original Planned Development approval should be reconsidered because of what they describe as material misrepresentations.
Zoning officials from the county have green lighted the project, and are encouraging the commission to approve it. Charlotte County Zoning Supervisor Maryann Franks wrote in a staff memo that the project would “allow for the restoration of an existing grove to a preserve with native vegetation, which complies with the requirements of adopted Ordinance No. 2023-020, and is consistent with the County’s Comprehensive Plan and adopted PD conditions.”
The county files for the project include noise mitigation measures, including perimeter berms, odor prevention and dust control.
The full commission agenda is HERE, with links to the project documents. The meeting is at 2 p.m.
Below views of the property under discussion. The view of the small mounds and crane with excavator is the dump for garden waste.
