Can you imagine living in a world where YOU have to PAY for the destruction of the things you love? Can you imagine losing your town's scenery and economic prosperity as greedy millionaires steal your tax-payer dollars to pave over what has been deemed "Florida's Yellowstone?"
Can you imagine all of this happening without the public being informed until it is too late? Because this is the situat
ion happening now in east central Florida.
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We are trying to save Spruce Creek in Volusia County, FL. Because it is POLLUTED, and has been so for OVER 8 YEARS, according to Florida DEP reports first published in 2008. And yet the tragedy is that Spruce Creek is also given special designation by the state, being named an "outstanding Florida waterbody," and as such is deserves special protections. But for decades local officials have been in the pocket of big developers, which means that federally mandated clean-up plans were never implemented. Instead, construction has multiplied, and nearly all natural filters to the waterway have been removed. NO OTHER "OUTSTANDING" WATERWAY IN FLORIDA HAS BEEN LEFT POLLUTED FOR SO LONG. But there is one natural filtration area left in the Spruce Creek Basin -- one wetland area which provides some relief for the impoverished Creek. It is circled on the map at the bottom. Construction on an unnecessary, overly-expensive, tax-payer funded, 4-lane freeway is starting TODAY. This the South Williamson Boulevard extension, and it will ruin Port Orange forever. Volusia's own traffic experts have shown its construction will cause local road network FAILURE.
2. Pristine wetlands, which were slated to be added to the neighboring Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve will be lost forever, including old cypress forests.
3. These wetlands are the only thing keeping Spruce Creek as a living waterway alive.
4. According to county engineers, the road will "catalyze" the need for the STRONGLY OPPOSED I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange (see Turnbull Bay Community, Inc.).
5. The developer (Pioneer CDD) PROMISED NEVER TO TAKE PUBLIC FUNDING, and now is taking OVER $15,000,000! That money could be used to support other needed transportation projects, or even buy the land!
6. This road will lead to urban sprawl, as it destroys the environment, by building in a location away from the town's infrastructure.
7. The road itself is poorly designed for the sensitive area, as a massive 4-lane road with huge grass medians and extra wide 130-ft right-of-ways.
8. The road will open up more pristine wetlands to overdevelopment planned for the Woodhaven Development and larger Farmton Development. So right now, we need to SPREAD THE WORD. We believe we can save both Spruce Creek and Farmton by either stopping the environmental permits or convincing local officials to investigate. However, we just found out that CONSTRUCTION IS BEGINNING as of September 2015, despite the state permit still out for appeal and the federal permit being issued without public notice last month. We must spread the word to citizens and local officials that WE DO NOT WANT THIS ROAD. Williamson Boulevard is a harbinger of a bankrupt county, a sprawling development, and a once-beautiful Spruce Creek destroyed at tax-payer expense. We need activists, reporters, nature-lovers, tax-watchers, lawyers, and voters to help sway the foreboding tide. Let's work quickly to Save Spruce Creek.
