U.S. Court Of Appeals Ruling Affirms Regional General Permit For 48,150 Acres Owned By The St. Joe Company (NYSE: Joe) In Walton And Bay Counties
U.S. Court of Appeals Rules Decisively Against Legal Challenge from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Florida Sierra Club
Jacksonville, Florida - (December 10, 2007) - The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) today announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has affirmed a U.S. District Court ruling in favor of a Regional General Permit (RGP) issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 2004. The court in its ruling rejected an appeal by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Florida Sierra Club of an earlier U.S. District Court decision that had also validated the permit. JOE intervened in the case.
As a result of the court's ruling, 33,000 acres of environmentally-special lands in south Bay and Walton Counties will be permanently protected at no expense to the public.
The appeals court affirmed the lower court's decision that allows a watershed approach to USACE environmental permitting as an alternative to individual Section 404 "dredge and fill" permits which tend to promote piecemeal environmental protection with significantly less connectivity between protected parcels.
The permitting process upheld by the court allows JOE, as the landowner and permit applicant, to implement a large-scale environmental and development plan for 48,150 acres in Walton and Bay Counties contiguous to the West Bay Sector, the 75,000-acre master planned project in Bay County to be anchored by a new site for the Panama City - Bay County International Airport and the 41,000-acre West Bay Preservation Area. JOE, along with environmental groups and the community, also employed a watershed-level environmental planning process for the West Bay Sector.
"We are very pleased the appeals court upheld the district court's decision and reasoning," said Peter S. Rummell, chairman and CEO of JOE. "JOE joined with a coalition of local and national environmental groups, governmental agencies and environmental science experts in an effort to create a model for large-scale ecological protection across an entire region at the watershed level. It is unfortunate that the NRDC did not join in the cooperative process that put environmental planning ahead of development, and instead, chose confrontational litigation. We believe that when the parties involved have similar objectives, a collaborative approach, as this ruling affirms, can produce a far better environmental result."
"Protecting the best of Florida while at the same time planning for the future is going to require new and innovative approaches to land planning," said Rummell. "But most important, it's going to require cooperation and collaboration from companies and organizations that have been opponents in the past. With this ruling we have an opportunity to establish a new paradigm, one in which tens of thousands of environmentally special acres can be preserved for our children and grandchildren at no cost to the taxpayer."
More than 70 percent of the land covered by the RGP, approximately 33,000 acres that includes significant high-quality wetlands, will be permanently protected. Development is allowed on only 30 percent of the land, or approximately 15,000 acres. "Protection of water resources is critical to ensure the high-quality of the surface water for the residents of the region," said Rummell. "The plan implemented by this RGP also creates a wildlife corridor extending from Choctawhatchee Bay to St. Andrews Bay to protect and preserve forever the ecological integrity and biological diversity of one of Northwest Florida's most important watersheds."
"Environmental planning should extend beyond the lifespan of one landowner, one company or one group," said Rummell. "We believe the planning framework implemented with this permit, which goes well beyond customary regulatory requirements, provides permanent protection for some of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Northwest Florida, safeguards important water resources and protects the beauty and environmental integrity of the region for generations to come."
