BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA

the Red Hills area, which is under the most intense development pressure. Couple those
soils with the rainstorms we have, unique in their intensity but also in high volumes, and
you have very sensitive and potentially unstable situation.
Now I'll read what the rest of you wrote.
In reviewing some old records as to how the slopes protection came about, I find that it
was originally in the city and county ordinances prior to the development of the comp
plan. Respect for local topography was apparently just common sense back then. That
practice has stayed in place today. Both local jurisdictions stress the need to coordinate
the land use with the natural topography.
Why protect slopes?
- Community character. This community is identified by its rolling hills and the people
who live here are proud of the way their community looks. Every advertising effort to
attract business and people to Tallahassee touts the beauty of rolling hills (and the tree
cover). The ups and downs of Mahan Drive, Apalachee Parkway, and all our local roads
make traveling through town interesting and pleasurable. The topography makes us
different from the rest of Florida- we have topography, yet we're only a few miles from
the coast.
- Maintaining the integrity of the land itself. Vegetation is not just what appears on top of
the land. The root mass below the surface makes up a complex matrix, developed over
hundreds of years, that holds the ground together. That matrix may extend deep into the
land surface and when the vegetation is removed, that matrix begins to fall apart.
Replanting takes a long time, if ever, to recreate that matrix.
- Erosion, water quality degradation and the TMDL issue. Everyone knows that we have
a problem with sedimentation degrading area streams and lakes. Sedimentation just plain
smothers an aquatic ecosystem. And since there is so much phosphorus in our soils, that
sedimentation creates the added problem of nutrient pollution. Local government is
currently under negotiation with EPA and FL DEP as to the amount of phosphorus that
can be allowed in area waterbodies (TMDL) and that phosphorus is attached to soil
particles. At a February 7, 1990 special city commission meeting, a member of the EMO
citizens committee said, "the Federal Register had reported that the two primary causes of
urban pollution were those that resulted from the oil and grease from roadways and
FROM CONSTRUCTION, ESPECIALLY WITH SEDIMENT FROM
CONSTRUCTION SITES." Right now those slopes where vegetative cover is intact help
to prevent soil erosion.
- Saves taxpayer money. Stringent standards that prevent the alteration of that vegetative
integrity I talked about help to ensure that we don't face higher costs to treat pollution and
runoff, to build stormwater ponds, to restore waterbodies and to pay EPA fines. Keeping
those slopes as undisturbed as possible actually saves taxpayers money. NOTE: It's not
enough to say "Well, we'll make the erosion controls stronger." The controls we have
now aren't doing the job. There is not enough enforcement, and it's just really difficult to
control erosion anyway.
-Severe slopes usually harbor other preservation features and are areas of biological
diversity.
Page 581 of 622 Posted at 5:00 p.m. on April 1, 2013