Santa Rosa County approves new landfill district

Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners approved an amendment to the county land development code during a July 28 meeting to include a Borrow Pit and Debris Disposal Facility District.

Commission Chairman Lane Lynchard said the Planning and Zoning Board recommended the amendment be approved.

The amendment will provide a list of allowable and prohibited uses in the district, change the notification area for pit variances, change the notification area for rezoning and land use amendments, remove pits as a conditional use, remove criteria regulating conditional uses and remove standards regulating excavation/mining activities, borrow pits and disposal facilities.

Beckie Cato, county planning and zoning director, said during a follow-up interview Monday that Commissioner Don Salter suggested amending the ordinance to create a new district specifically for pits and construction and demolition landfills. Before the amendment, pits and C&D landfills could be located in a number of areas as long as it was agriculturally zoned property. It had to be granted either as conditional use or special-permitted use.