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Anti-EPC Lawyer Protests Too Much

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2009

With regards to Keith Bricklemyer's (a land use attorney) comments in "Wetlands Division A Redundancy" (Views, March 21): It was Shakespeare who once wrote those immortal words, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Has anyone ever noticed the overwhelming majority of those who write in protest about the Environmental Protection Commission are developers, land use attorneys, and those individuals with large parcels of land that just happen to be predominately composed of wetlands, not uplands?

It could be said this eternal complaining could be due to the fact that the EPC is doing its job - protecting the environment, and that does include wetlands. Even in this time of cost-cutting and budget constraints the citizens of Hillsborough County filled the County Center to fight for and defend the actions of the EPC.

The writer uses the Army Corps of Engineers as his "knight in shining armour," yet this very bureaucracy has certainly had its share of failures and disasters at the cost of millions and millions of federal taxpayer dollars. Perhaps if the development community followed the rules instead of always trying to bend and manipulate them to their advantage, the reduced man hours in review could be passed on to the taxpayers, of which developers and land owners certainly are - a win-win for all.

Finally, I would prefer to trust a local individual charged with protecting my environment who is knowledgeable in the unique circumstances and histories of the lands in our community and truly wants the right action to be done rather than trust it to a bureaucrat located hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

STEVEN MORRIS

Odessa

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