By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Levy County officials on Tuesday said the California-based Chinese company that purchased 1,400 acres of property in Gulf Hammock for a primate quarantine facility has yet to make contact with the county to this point.

            County Commission Chairman Rock Meeks said that while it is true there were inquiries by the owner before the property was purchased, nothing has happened since the land was bought.

            “At this time, this company that purchased this property has not made any contact with the county as far as to ask for any more guidance outside of what they’ve been given – no permit has been applied for,” Meeks said. “As far as staff goes and the commission goes it’s been crickets since the purchase was made. Nobody has inquired or asked to come to the county since that happened. Just wanted to get that out there.”

            The actual purchaser of the property is Yuxia Feng, MD, chairwoman of the board of directors for JOINN Laboratories, in California, which is part of a company by the same name based in China

            A June 3 letter from Dusty Calderon, the American realtor who arranged for the company to purchase the land, said the property wouldn’t be used for laboratory or experimental use. He was told the property wasn’t zoned for what he was requesting.

            “She is only wanting to use the unencumbered property for a quarantine facility, as I explained in an earlier email. Use of the remaining conservation acreage, some would be continuously used for existing breeding pairs of exotic game on site, and they would possibly like to add some cattle and other domestic animals in areas to make it a complete productive ranch,” Calderon said in the letter.

            Lack of a formal inquiry by the company concerning the Gulf Hammock site doesn’t mean JOINN won’t apply for a land use change or zoning change in the future. If the company files for a permit, it will be given information on what is required for approval.

            County Attorney Nicolle Shalley said she has been told by Planning and Zoning Director Stacey Hectus that the company was informed before it ever purchased the property that a quarantine facility for primates or a laboratory, or both were not allowed under the current zoning category, Forestry Rural Residential, and therefore the county has yet to give the company a formal determination on how the land can be used.

            “What would have to happen to get a legally binding determination from the county – they would have to come to the county and make application for something like a zoning or special exception or whatever they think they need,” Shalley said. “To get a legal determination, you have to apply for something, pay the permit fee, fill out the application and there would be public hearings associated with that.”

            Commissioner Lilly Rooks said she wants Shalley to write a letter to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regarding state permits required for exotic or dangerous wildlife in Levy County, and she also wants to know who currently holds state permits for exotic and dangerous wildlife including their addresses. Rooks said she fought to make Levy County a place where the state wouldn’t allow big cats and other dangerous wildlife to live in Levy County under an agreement reached with FWC, but said in 2010 when she was no longer in office, the agency “put Levy County back into the mix again.”

            Shalley said she would be happy to write a letter to FWC asking for an update on who has permits in Levy County. She said FWC is supposed to keep that information posted on its website but she wasn’t able to find it. She said their regulations say FWC shall notify the county of the location where the proposed primate facility would be located as part of the permit process and in issuing the permit so it doesn’t violate local zoning laws.

            “I’ll be happy to point that out to them,” she said.

            Shalley said she learned from Hectus that in 2011 when the county was challenged on this point, the county noted that the keeping of dangerous and or exotic animals was allowed only in the Agriculture Rural Residential district and only upon approval by the Levy County Commission of a special exception.

            In that 2011 case, she said someone was denied a county permit and took that to court and challenged the county saying the county had no authority to deny the permit because the property owner had a state permit.

            “The court said no, the county has zoning authority to determine the appropriate location for these things and the county has determined it’s in the ARR district and subject to the special exception process,” Shalley said. “I think the bottom line for anyone to have exotic or dangerous animals in Levy County, they have to meet your special exception requirements. They have to get an FWC permit of which you should be notified of and on some types of facilities, there are federal laws that kick in for research facilities and all of that. So, they may also need a permit through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For now, we can at least ask FWC for a list of current facilities, some of which may have been long before any of these regulations occurred. At least we’ll know when they provide that.”

——————————–

Board of County Commission Regular Meeting September 20, 2022; Posted September 20, 2022