Cuchens' ethics to be questioned if found

By Gabriel Tynes

Walton County Administrator Ronnie Bell told the Florida Department of Environmental Protection two letters written by District Four County Commissioner Rosier Cuchens regarding a single, after-thefact seawall permit last summer were ?not official.?

Sarah Williams, a DEP spokesperson, said Cuchens wrote the letters in June, shortly after the wall was discovered by a DEP aerial survey in May. Williams also said there were ?no records? of an application ever filed and the DEP then contacted the county to affirm the findings.

On May 16, the DEP sent the property owners a warning letter stating that there was no documentation of the seawall construction at 59 Pelican Circle, and the wall could be ?contributing to violations? of construction on the Coastal Control Line.

On June 6, Cuchens wrote a letter to the DEP stating the wall was not in violation of any codes or zoning requirements. He also stated the wall was built on an emergency basis, to prevent the ?impending undermining of the house foundation.?

In his second letter received Aug. 4, Cuchens wrote the wall was in compliance with the county?s comprehensive plan. Cuchens? letters were also accompanied by an after-the-fact seawall permit application and engineering evaluation from Anderson Engineers.

According to Bell, determining which projects are within the guidelines of the comprehensive plan is exclusively the responsibility of engineers from the Walton County Planning and Development Services Division.

Upon learning of Cuchens? letters on Oct. 16, Bell wrote the DEP to advise that Cuchens? letters were not ?offi cial.? Bell did not refer to Cuchens specifically in his notifi cation, and rather referenced the letters as ?county? letters.

In a phone call last week, Assistant County Administrator Shirl Williams said she did ?not know what Cuchens was trying to do? with the letters.

?We didn?t hear anything about the wall until after the permit was complete,? Williams said.

She said letters of authorization could only be signed by planning department Environmental Manager Billy McKee, and Cuchens ?had no right? to speak for the county in the matter. Furthermore, she said the county has not issued permits outside of emergency guidelines, which expired in October 2005.

According to county public records, the property belongs to Dr. James R. Spires, whose primary residence is in Mobile, Ala. Spires has not fi led any construction papers in almost 10 years, and the only documents pertaining to infrastructure on his two adjacent lots were commencement of construction notifications for the main house, a guest house and a swimming pool.

Today, the property is listed for sale by the owners at a price of $15 million. An online advertisement at forsalebyowner. com lists features such as an alarm system, gated entryway and stucco wall enclosure but does not include any information on a coastal armoring device. The exact measurements of the wall are not known but plat information gives the Spires? a combined 220 feet of gulf-front property.

A second warning letter from The DEP issued June 26 cautioned the Spires? that ?sand fill appears to have been done outside the subject property boundaries.? Today, between 12-18 inches of wall still protrude from the top of the sand fill, and the project is not complete.

In repeated phone calls last week, Spires and his wife, Michelle, refused to answer questions about the wall and did not respond to messages at his office or on her cell phone.

DEP spokesperson Williams said, ?We didn?t see any documentation of the wall until after it was discovered,?

Later, with what they believed was county approval, the DEP deemed the Spires? application completed. Now, the application has been frozen awaiting a proper review by the planning department.

This is not the first time Cuchens has come under fire for seawall construction. The commissioner was investigated by the Florida Commission on Ethics after Hurricane Dennis for approving emergency armoring permits which subsequently brought revenue to his family?s own construction business. That operation, Choctawhatchee Bay Piling and Dock, Inc., built dozens of seawalls after the emergency permits were issued last year.

On Oct. 10, the FCE found that Cuchens had no ?voting conflict when he voted on measures affecting his private business.?

No records indicate which company constructed the Spires? wall last spring.

After a flurry of coastal construction projects last fall, many walls are now barely noticeable ? hidden beneath steep slopes of sand covered with growing vegetation. Yet controversy over the emergency seawall permitting process has been swirling in both private and public arenas since the day they were originally conceived. There have been previous problems with private encroachment on public land, miscommunication about regulations and guidelines, and allegations of inequality and subjectivity.

At the BCC meeting on Oct. 10, attorney Dana Matthews openly insinuated that the county has routinely mishandled the permitting process, and the comprehensive plan actually suggests the walls could be built with the stipulation that they protect the dune systems. He also testified that the county issued other permits without the knowledge of county planning engineers.

Matthews, who was representing four property owners unrelated to the Spires? case, was seeking approval to continue all seawall construction without emergency permits, which have not been issued since October 2005. He believes the county should be removed from the process all together.

?This ?cooperation? between the county and the state has been a nightmare,? Matthews said. ?A quandary.?

?The county abrogated jurisdiction of the beach to the DEP in 1996,? Matthews explained. ?And now their involvement is obstructing the very progress they are trying to achieve.

?If [the county] wants to delegate, they need to step back and decide how to do it because we can?t have a half-armored, unregulated beach.?

Meanwhile, Sarah Williams said the DEP has received ?several? afterthe-fact applications from Walton County, although their requirements continue to mandate county approval.

?[This case] is not isolated,? Williams said. ?But the DEP will not issue permanent permits without official county approval.?