Planning on building an RV park on Pensacola Beach? Better look close at the color of your sand. That's what developers of a 70-site upscale RV park found out--much to their chagrin. After two years of mucking through the permit process, the whole $2.4 million plan may go down the drain--all on account of the color of their sand.
It seems that the pure white sands of Pensacola Beach are a big thing. So big, that when Jim Reeves' work crews started digging down beneath the white sands of the beach and hit a layer of gray to orange colored sand, county officials ordered a stop to work. Reeves was told that the top two feet of the "discolored" sand would have to be hauled off, grain by grain, and taken away.
Some folks think the "endangered species act" is tough. Escambia County's protection of its pearly white sand doesn't allow for any old miscegination. Never mind the fact that the undesirable sand used to belong to the county. When the abutting road was widened a decade ago, the county dug the 'bad' sand out of the roadway and placed it on the property Reeves wants to make into the new resort. But the county says, when it comes to discolored sand, possession is 10 points of the law.
Reeves has stopped all work at the site, save for "encapsulating" the prime white sand so that it can't escape. Now financial backers and banks will have to decide whether or not to invest the additional monies Reeves says will be needed if the undesirable sand is to be removed--an estimated $100,000 more.
photo: ellenm 1 on flickr.com
1 comment:
typical government intervention, what a crock. Now one less RV park.
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