Residents in Crescent City, Florida are fighting to keep an enormous Wal-Mart distribution center out of their community. Florida already has 6 Wal-Mart distribution centers. This week, residents in Crescent City submitted the following update: “Wal-Mart asked the Froehlich brothers, owners of the potato farm where Wal-Mart wants to build, to rescind their PUD request changing part of the potato farm from Agricultural zoning to Industrial. The reason given was that Wal-Mart wants to start a new request of their own using the same data as was used by the Froehlich brothers. The county decided to not let the PUD be rescinded, but to let a judge rule on one of the seven law suits entered against the re-zoning. This was done and our lawyer has received a letter to that effect. The county wants the letter signed and returned ASAP so that Wal-Mart can start anew. We are going to sign, because to delay this would only hurt us in the long run. This is just the first hurdle we have crossed and there will be more before this distribution center issue is finally closed. The main reason the county wanted a judge to rule in our favor and stop the re-zoning is a major oversight on their part. Seems the Comp Plan, written by the county and used by the county for this re-zoning, did not have any way written into it to allow a re-zoning to be rescinded. This makes the Putnam County Florida, County Commissioners and the Putnam County Planning and Zoning Commission look like rank amateurs. We are continuing our battle against Wal-Mart and their on-going plan to ruin this quiet serene area of agriculture and private home sites by putting the DC right in the middle of it all. We do not need the large and noisy trucks coming and going 24 hours a day. The animals using the wildlife corridor that abuts the DC site do not need the bright lights all night. The close by conservation area does not need the pollution from the truck maintenance area running into Haw Creek and further down into Crescent Lake. We residents are against the location. In a recent article, a Wal-Mart spokesman was quoted as saying it is not the location the residents are against. We believe distribution centers should be located in an area already zoned for industrial, not on re-zoned farm land or other places where people live.”
This case has become entangled with lawsuits, as it deserves. When Wal-Mart tries to place a million-plus square foot trucking facility near residential neighborhoods, they deserve to end up in court instead. For three earlier stories on this subject, search Newsflash by “Crescent City.”
