TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: To simplify and expedite processing of Department of the Army permits for minor, substantially similar activities, the Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) proposes to reissue the Regional General Permit (RGP) SAJ-114 for non-tidal wetlands, which are located in the St. Andrews Bay and Choctawhatchee Bay Watersheds in western Bay and eastern Walton Counties, Florida.
Minor activities that would be covered under RGP SAJ-114 include the following, discharge of dredged or fill material into non-tidal waters of the United States for the construction of residential, commercial, recreational, and institutional projects, and restoration activities and their components, which comprise and are necessary for the construction, use and maintenance of such projects. Project components may include, but are not limited to, roads, parking lots, garages, yards, utility lines, temporary construction facilities, and stormwater management facilities. In addition, project components may also include temporary construction facilities necessary to support the project. Examples of residential projects include single family homes, and multiple and single unit developments. Examples of commercial projects include retail stores, light industrial facilities (which means business activity such as commercial distribution, assembly or manufacturing processes with no primary use of raw materials), research facilities, warehouses, distribution facilities, hotels, restaurants, business parks, and shopping centers. Examples of recreational projects include playgrounds, playing fields, golf courses, hiking trails, bike paths, horse paths, stables, nature centers and campgrounds. Examples of institutional projects include schools, fire stations, governmental office buildings, roads, judicial buildings, public works buildings, libraries, hospitals, and places of worship. Restoration activities include those designed to manipulate the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a site with the goal of returning or enhancing natural/historic ecological functions to a former or degraded aquatic resource. This permit applies only to the portions of Walton County and Bay County, Florida, as depicted on the SAJ-114 Boundary Map.
The purpose of the RGP is to protect the aquatic environment on a watershed scale within an area of new, and likely in the near future rapid, residential and commercial development by developing a forward-looking, flexible and predictable permitting program that would minimize unavoidable direct impacts to highest quality aquatic resources, minimize impacts to lower quality aquatic resources, and appropriately mitigate for direct, indirect and cumulative impacts within the affected watershed.
Activities would occur within nontidal waters of the United States within an area that encompasses approximately 41,585 acres, including approximately 28,327 acres owned by The St. Joe Company (St. Joe). The area subject to this RGP encompasses portions of the Bay-Walton Sector Plan (BWSP) area. Townships, Ranges and Sections are: T1S R16W S19, 30, 31; T1S R17W S13-17, 19-36; T2S R16W S6-7, 18; T2S R16W S1, 14-16, 18-36; T2S R17W S1-18; T2S R19W S24-26, 36; and T3S R18W S1-6, 11-13, in Bay County and Walton County, Florida. Coordinates at center of RGP Project Area: 30.356389, -85.952778.
BACKGROUND: RGP SAJ-114, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP) corresponding Ecosystem Management Agreement (EMA 3) with St. Joe, were cooperatively developed by an interagency team of representatives from the Corps, FDEP, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC), and St. Joe to address existing and anticipated developmental pressures within certain portions of the BWSP area. The BWSP area encompasses approximately 110,500 acres in Bay and Walton Counties, Florida. The effort to develop RGP SAJ-114 and FDEP’s EMA 3 with St. Joe was modeled on the development of RGP SAJ-86, and the FDEP’s first EMA (EMA 1) with St. Joe, and RGP SAJ-105, and the corresponding FDEP EMA 2. RGP SAJ-86 encompasses an area of approximately 48,150 acres, lying south of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway in Bay County. RGP SAJ-105 is centered around the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport and consists of approximately 43,977 acres.
SAJ-114 was originally issued by the Corps on August 21, 2020, and will expire on August 21, 2025.
SAJ-114, in combination with SAJ-86 and SAJ-105 is the culmination of a comprehensive, watershed based approach to deal with expected development within the BWSP area. When SAJ-114 was issued, 100% of the BWSP area was included in the three RGPs.
The Corps anticipates utilization of RGP SAJ-114 to address future requests for minor work within the authorized geographic area. This RGP improves efficiencies for the review and verification of minor activities, thus improving service to the regulated public. This RGP will be coordinated with Federal and State resource agencies to address federal laws such as the National Historic Preservation Act and the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act.
The term “General Permit” means a Department of the Army authorization that is issued on a nationwide or regional (District) basis for a category of activities when: those activities are substantially similar in nature and cause only minimal individual and cumulative impacts. General permits reduce the burden of the regulatory program on the public and ensure timely issuance of permits while effectively administering the laws and regulations which establish and govern the program. General permits are reviewed every five years. After five years, general permits may be reissued, suspended, or revoked.
An assessment of the cumulative impacts of work authorized under a general permit is performed prior to authorization. In most instances, projects which comply with the conditions of a general permit can receive project specific authorization. Projects that do not comply with the conditions of a general permit may still receive authorization via an individual permit, but the application must be individually evaluated and coordinated with third parties, including the federal and state resource agencies. Review of an application for an individual permit takes additional time to complete as conflict resolution may be required.
AVOIDANCE AND MINIMIZATION:
RGP SAJ-114 would authorize activities that are minor and commonplace. The proposed terms and conditions of the RGP SAJ-114 require activities proposed for authorization to be minimal in nature and avoid aquatic resources to the maximum extent.
Several specific minimization requirements have been incorporated in project design criteria including established impact ratios for individual project sites and within watershed basins, requirements for preservation within designated conservation units, establishment of buffers adjacent to high quality wetlands and an aggregate total impacts to high quality wetlands at 108.42 acres for the permit instrument.
COMPENSATORY MITIGATION:
Mitigation includes upfront minimization of wetland impacts, upfront preservation of thirteen conservation units totaling over 9,794 acres (±7,543 acres of wetlands and ±2,250 acres of upland buffer), and compensatory mitigation through wetland enhancements and restoration within mitigation banks servicing the RGP area, conservation units, or within preserved wetlands within individual project sites. The conservation units and preserved wetlands on individual project sites enhance a network of wildlife corridors and significant habitats, which both traverse and are located immediately adjacent to the RGP area. The RGP provides improved predictability and efficiency of the federal wetland permitting program in an area of over 41,000 acres, of which approximately 68% is owned by St. Joe.
CULTURAL RESOURCES:
The Corps is not making an effect determination to historic properties for this permit instrument. Instead, each activity proposed for authorization under RGP SAJ-114 will be evaluated for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the guidelines of 33 C.F.R. Part 325, Appendix C.
For each activity proposed for authorization under the SAJ-114, the Corps will conduct an individual evaluation of the activity’s potential effects to historic properties and Tribal resources, in accordance with Section 106 of the NHPA and Tribal Trust responsibilities.
No activity shall be authorized under this RGP which is likely to adversely affect historic properties listed on, or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
If the proposed activity requires consultation under the NHPA, the proposed activity cannot be authorized under this RGP until consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office and other appropriate consulting parties is initiated and concludes with a determination that the activity has little likelihood to affect a historic property.
ENDANGERED SPECIES:
Informal consultation was initiated on April 29, 2016 to address potential impacts to 20 species that may be present in the RGP area. On August 8, 2016, FWS concurred with the Corps determination that the RGP would have no effect on 17 species and may affect but would not likely adversely affect 3 species. FWS requested that during the Individual Project Approval process, if the proposed project is within 1,500 feet of a documented potential pond that may provide habitat for reticulated flatwoods salamander, then a re-initiation of consultation with FWS would occur.
A revised Biological Assessment, that included changes to the conservation units, was submitted by the Corps to USFWS on April 12, 2017. Concurrence was received on April 28, 2019.
The current action does not involve a change to the regulated activity and no new species were listed since consultation was completed, reinitiation of consultation is not required.
WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION:
The Corps will request general water quality certification from the FDEP.
COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT CONSISTENCY:
The Corps will request general coastal zone consistency concurrence from the FDEP.
IMPACT ON NATURAL RESOURCES:
Coordination with FWS, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Marine Fisheries Services, and other Federal, State, and local agencies, environmental groups, and concerned citizens generally yields pertinent environmental information that is instrumental in determining the impact the proposed action will have on the natural resources of the area.
EVALUATION:
The decision whether to issue a permit will be based on an evaluation of the probable impact including cumulative impacts of the proposed activity on the public interest. That decision will reflect the national concern for both protection and utilization of important resources. The benefits, which reasonably may be expected to accrue from the proposal, must be balanced against its reasonably foreseeable detriments. All factors which may be relevant to the proposal will be considered including cumulative impacts thereof; among these are conservation, economics, esthetics, general environmental concerns, wetlands, historical properties, fish and wildlife values, flood hazards, floodplain values, land use, navigation, shoreline erosion and accretion, recreation, water supply and conservation, water quality, energy needs, safety, food, and fiber production, mineral needs, considerations of property ownership, and in general, the needs and welfare of the people.
COMMENTS:
The Corps is soliciting comments from the public; Federal, State, and local agencies and officials; Indian Tribes; and other Interested parties in order to consider and evaluate the impacts of this proposed activity. Any comments received will be considered by the Corps to determine whether to issue, modify, condition, or deny a permit for this proposal. To make this determination, comments are used to assess impacts to endangered species, historic properties, water quality, general environmental effects, and the other public interest factors listed above. Comments are used in the preparation of an Environmental Assessment (EA) and/or an Environmental Impact Statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Comments are also used to determine the need for a public hearing and to determine the overall public interest of the proposed activity.
COMMENTS regarding the potential authorization of RGP SAJ-114 should be submitted in writing within 30 days from the date of this notice. Comments should be submitted via the Regulatory Request System public notice module at https://rrs.usace.army.mil/rrs/public-notices. Alternatively, you may submit written comments to Kelly Bunting at Kelly.A.Bunting@usace.army.mil.
QUESTIONS concerning this public notice should be directed to Kelly Bunting at Kelly.A.Bunting@usace.army.mil, or by telephone at 850-763-0717, extension 2.
Any person may request, in writing, within the comment period specified in this notice, that a public hearing be held to consider the application. Requests for public hearings shall state, with particularity, the reasons for holding a public hearing. Requests for a public hearing will be granted, unless the District Engineer determines that the issues raised are insubstantial or there is otherwise no valid interest to be served by a hearing.
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