| As legal battle continues, Seven Falls falls further into disarray
A sign filled with holes that directs travelers to Seven Falls Golf and River Club foreshadows what can be found at the site, from erosion and silt fences buried deep in dirt to a lack of infrastructure. 76 in fines. Violations include no maintenance or ground cover in phase two of Seven Falls Golf and River Club, the Village phase one, Golf and River Club phase six, townhome village sites A and B, subdivision roads phase 1a and 1b, Golf and River Club phase five; no restoration plan or revisions received for phase 1b and others; and slope failure revisions. Since June 16, 2010, Seven Falls LLC has been fined $1,410. "We have done several site visits since 2010," she said. The case is currently being appealed. Zambon said the county's biggest concern is compliance, not citations and fines. "We are willing to work with people who are willing to work toward compliance," she said. We would work with them to get the site into compliance. Our goal is compliance for environmental protection. A legal battle has tied up funds that could get things resolved on the site. "The county does not have the money to seed the property; we don't have the authority to enter and work on the property; and if the roadways were grassed, there would still be problems because the roadways have to be stabilized and grassing the area isn't enough," she said. Zambon said the county has "called the bond," or requested bond funds in the amount of $6 million to undertake work at the site that wasn't done by a certain deadline. There's an easy way, Weintraub said, to stabilize the site until a permanent solution is found. "If the county could go out and seed the bare areas, that would prevent much of the erosion," he said. Zambon said the county can't plant grass on the site for a number of reasons. At the end of March, Seven Falls had not paid any money toward the fines it has incurred for the violations. Environmental and Conservation Organization Executive Director David Weintraub said his group has been testing a stream near the development. "We have been testing Little Willow Creek for years," he said. Vinson said the money needs to be released in order for his company to put in roadways and correct erosion problems. Weintraub said teams from ECO tested the water in October and could find no bugs that would indicate a healthy stream. "The county has an improvement guarantee requirement under the subdivision ordinance," she said. This improvement guarantee can take the form of a letter of credit, cash, or - like in this case - a bond. Zambon said that in a case where a bond is used, the county has to request the money if work has never been finished by a deadline on a subdivision. "The work that needed to be carried out, hasn't," she said. "There are two resolutions to this problem," she said. Zambon said the county sent a letter to the holder of the bond, Lexon Insurance Co. "Generally speaking, the diversity and quantity of those bugs are high in good water," he said. Weintraub said steam beds are lined with sediment rather than stones, which killed the bugs, and sediment oftentimes contains pesticides from local farms. "We discussed some of these concerns with the project engineer, and they did do some initial restoration in 2008 or 2009," he said. As legal battle continues, Seven Falls falls further into disarray |
Monday, 9 April 2012
As legal battle continues, Seven Falls falls further into disarray
