Emerald Lakes to fill more than 100 acres of wetlands southwest of Palm Bay

Jim Waymer | Florida Today

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To build Emerald Lakes, a Tampa developer plans to fill in almost 102 acres of natural wetlands in southwest Palm Bay, to make way for thousands of homes.

The public has until Nov. 21 to comment on the developer's federal wetlands permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The applicant, Emerald Investment Holdings, LLC, based in Tampa, seeks a federal permit to fill 101.69 acres of wetlands to build residential, commercial (office, retail), educational, recreational, and health-related development on both sides of Interstate 95 and north of Willowbrook Drive in Palm Bay.

The 1,573-acre site is bisected by Interstate 95 and borders the St. Johns Heritage Parkway interchange, which is not yet open to traffic.

The project would affect waters linked with the basins of the Sebastian River-Vero Beach Main Canal and the Melbourne Tillman Canal-St. Johns River.

The Corps has determined that the project also "may affect the Florida scrub jay and the Eastern indigo snake," and "may affect, but is not likely to adversely affect" the red-cockaded woodpecker and the wood stork.

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Conceptual plans for the development surrounding the interchange — including adjacent land west of I-95 — have detailed roughly 3,500 homes, additional mixed-use development and a hospital, creating Palm Bay's new urban "town center."

Emerald Investment Holdings seeks a 10-year permit due to the size and complexity of the phased project, according to the Corps' permit application public notice.

The project would impact 50.38 acres of wetlands on the east side of Emerald Lakes, of 336.54-acres of federal jurisdictional wetlands, and 48.95-acres of the 263.76-acres of federal jurisdictional wetlands on the west side of the property.

"These proposed wetland impacts represent an impact of approximately 15 percent of the present wetlands on the east side of Emerald Lakes and an impact of approximately 19 percent of the present wetlands on the west side of Emerald Lakes," the Corps quotes the applicant telling the agency.

Emerald Investment Holdings proposes preserving 85 percent of the wetlands on the east side of Emerald Lakes and 81 percent of the wetlands on the west side of I-95.

To offset the wetland destruction, the applicant proposes to buy 80.798 wetland mitigation bank credits from federally approved mitigation banks in the region, the public notices says.

"The majority of the proposed wetland impacts are associated with development surrounding the newly developed interchange,” Corps quotes the applicant telling the agency.

Plans for a new I-95 interchange at Micco Road date to January 1970. Lack of interstate access has created an economic disadvantage for Palm Bay and southern Brevard County, according to a Federal Highway Administration report from February 2014. More than 70,000 General Development Corp. residential "legacy lots" remain undeveloped in Palm Bay.

Comments on the permit application should be submitted in writing to the attention of the District Engineer through the Cocoa Permits Section, 400 High Point Drive, Suite 600, Cocoa, Florida 32926 within 21 days from the date of this notice.

For information, visit the Corps of Engineers public notice website.