NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Land clearing that led to a wildfire that shut down Interstate 95 in March took place without a permit required by the St. Johns River Water Management District, records show. It's one of three permit violations the agency has noted at Coastal Woods over the past few weeks.
Water district documents indicate the agency now intends to take enforcement action against the company developing the property, Geosam Capital. In letters to Martin Pham, Geosam's vice president of operations, district officials noted construction taking place in three separate parts of the project without required paperwork. At least three times, the district asked the company to cease clearing land until permit issues were resolved.
On March 27, the district's compliance coordinator, William Carlie, sent Pham a letter following up on a Feb. 14 letter asking the company to file an overdue conservation easement required to make up for wetland impacts during construction for the already-completed Units B and B2. Because that easement had not been filed, Carlie wrote, the district was going to seek enforcement action.
But the letter also stated district staff conducted an inspection on the site on March 12 and found the land for Unit C had been “entirely cleared and grubbed, and was being graded during the inspection” before the permit was issued. The required permit application was still incomplete and Carlie recommended the company cease construction on that site.
During that same inspection, district officials concluded clearing had taken place in wetlands and uplands for the Commercial Phase 1 of the project without a required $2.3 million performance bond. Carlie reiterated the company should “cease all unauthorized construction activity to include land clearing" upon receipt of the letter.
Clearing continued. On April 5, district staff met with Pham and representatives of Geosam Capital at the district’s office in Maitland. Carlie wrote that he informed Pham at that meeting that land clearing activity prior to the issuance of a permit is “a violation of district rules subject to enforcement action.”
“My understanding was that Geosam Capital would cease unauthorized construction at the site and not recommence until a permit was issued," Carlie wrote in an April 20 letter, after another district staff site inspection found land clearing had started again.
Despite the clearing and other violations, the water district went ahead and issued the permit for Coastal Woods Unit C last week. District officials were not available to discuss the permitting issues. Spokeswoman Teresa Monson said the district would "continue to work directly with the applicant to remedy the situation."
Geosam is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Asked last week why the company was clearing without the required permit, Pham replied via email: “We have been working closely with St. Johns River Water Management District for months to secure permits for this specific phase of our ongoing Coastal Woods project. Our permit has been issued."
"We are excited to bring additional communities to the area to meet the demand for new home construction. Multiple crews have been newly hired to efficiently move through earthwork on our projects in order to limit the amount of time that interim nuisances persist," he wrote. He added they had "continued to work with city officials and respond to residents."
Pham did not reply to a follow up email asking why they'd cleared without a permit.
When nearby resident Gary Wilkins learned Geosam didn’t have the required paperwork, he replied: “I am not totally surprised.
“The overall issue with many of the (neighboring) residents is feeling the development is going far too quickly,” Wilkins said.
He referred to the March 28 fire on the Geosam site, when a fire set to burn debris in Coastal Woods got out of control and became a 204-acre wildfire that shut down Interstate 95 for roughly 18 hours. In that case, Geosam accepted responsibility for the escaped fire and stated it would pay overtime expenses for city personnel who helped fight the fire. The Jon M. Hall Company is doing the site development and land clearing for Geosam.
Geosam also has come under fire from residents concerned about dust blowing off the cleared land. Wilkins said he was driving down Pioneer Trail one day and saw a large dust cloud blowing off Coastal Woods. “I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “It was like right out of a movie scene of the Sahara Desert.”
The company has since agreed to wet down the large cleared area multiple times during the day to reduce dust.
On Friday, city spokeswoman Anna Hackett said everything was clear between the city and Geosam, and that the building projects were moving forward.
But City Commissioner Jake Sachs is concerned. “I just wonder if, when we have signed off and approved, do we follow up with the other agencies," he said.
The 844-acre Coastal Woods is expected to include 1,400 homes and commercial areas along State Road 44. Nearly half the site was wetlands, district documents show.
Geosam's environmental consultant is Bio-Tech Consulting, whose president, John Miklos, is also chairman of the water district’s governing board. This case is the third time on record in five months that a company using Bio-Tech Consulting has run into trouble with the water district for doing work without the required permits. Miklos didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
Besides Geosam, Consolidated-Tomoka Land Company was found last December to be working in wetlands without a permit. And, a parking rental business near Orlando International Airport, using Bio-Tech, also was found to be clearing land without a permit.
It's not the first time Geosam's owner, George Armoyan, has run afoul of government agencies.
In 2014, a newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, the Herald News, reported Armoyan was warned to stay away from city properties for six months because of threatening behavior toward city officials. Armoyan told the newspaper planners were stalling his proposal. “I was trying to build a landmark for the city I can put my signature on,” the newspaper reported him saying. “I don’t need some jackass guy who doesn’t know his elbow from his ass telling me what to do with my development.”
In 2006, the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reported that Armoyan "was famous for jumping the gun on developments, mowing down trees to get ready for projects that local officials hadn't approved yet."
"One time, his methods earned him a $10,000 fine from Halifax County; less than three months later, he caused a stir by showing up with an excavator at a different site where he'd tried, but failed, to get permission for a new subdivision," the newspaper continued.
Sachs is concerned the city, and perhaps the water district, "don’t have enough staff to stay on top of what local developers are doing.”
“I’m concerned that we are out-manned, with our small planning and engineering staff,’ he said.
Wilkins voiced similar concerns.
“They (the city officials) are outnumbered,” he said. “Does the City Commission have the willpower to actually try to do anything to curb the development or to enforce the regulations appropriately?”