News: Navarre Beach Pier Faces Environmental Delays
by Duwayne Escobedo
June 5th, 2008
Santa Rosa County applied for environmental permits to rebuild the Navarre Beach pier in October 2007 and hoped to complete the project by the end of 2009.
However, it appears U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Marine Fisheries Service regulators plan to delay the project by requiring more unexpected environmental studies.The federal agencies are demanding a Formal Consultation and a Biological Assessment relating to the construction and operation of the Navarre Beach pier.
The current fishing pier was severely damaged by hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 and since that time Santa Rosa County has been working with FEMA to obtain about $8.4 million to remove the old pier and build a more disaster resistant structure.
Santa Rosa County Commissioner Gordon Goodin says the "dubious" request by the federal agencies will likely delay the pier from being rebuilt by six to 12 months.
"This delay was completely unexpected," he says in an e-mail. "This is a prime example of an arbitrary and capricious decision by a couple of federal agencies. It will increase costs, and since it is a project funded by FEMA, one federal agency (the Army Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville) is creating another unnecessary expense for another federal agency (FEMA) -- all funded through taxpayer dollars. Lost in all of this debate is the fact that the pier was in existence for 40 years prior to the hurricane that damaged it, something that can't find relevance with the bureaucrats."
Goodin and Santa Rosa County officials say they are working with Florida Congressmen in Washington, D.C., to try and resolve the permitting dispute with federal regulators. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's office says the delay will not take more than 135 days to be resolved and could be less, Goodin reports.
The new Navarre Beach pier will be about 20-feet wide and constructed using concrete piles, concrete pile caps, and concrete beams. Depending on how construction bids compare with the available funding, the pier will be 1,200 to 1,500 feet long.
Until the recent delays with obtaining the federal permit, Santa Rosa County had planned to advertise for bids in early June. Based on a 12-16 month construction schedule, this would allow for the pier to be completed by the end of 2009.
Santa Rosa County officials point out that the Navarre Beach fishing pier is very similar to two fishing piers currently being built in Panama City Beach and existing nearby fishing piers in Pensacola Beach and Okaloosa County. The proposed Panama City Beach piers and the other existing piers are also very similar in length, width, type of construction, and expected environmental impacts.
According to the county: The proposed Navarre Beach pier will be built adjacent to the remains of a current pier that was originally built in the 1960s. The project site is also the location of a large scale beach nourishment project that was completed in late 2005 using state and local funds. For this beach nourishment project, the beach width was increased by about 200 feet by pumping sand from an offshore site.
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