As Brevard County’s solid-waste landfills fill up toward their capacity, county commissioners remain locked in negotiations to buy a 45-acre site that could add 10 years to the landfills’ life.
Commissioners on Oct. 22 choked on the $3 million difference between Florida Recyclers of Brevard LLC’s value of $8.4 million for its land and a $5.4 million value from county-hired appraiser Clayton Roper Marshall of Orlando.
In a 5-0 vote, commissioners gave County Manager Frank Abbate three months to have his staff haggle a price for the land, perhaps midway between the two appraisals.
Vice Chair Bryan Lober, of Rockledge, said he hoped that three months would provide a missing piece of the puzzle, an environmental assessment of any possible underground contamination of the Florida Recyclers land.
Chair Kristine Isnardi said she’d rather an independent firm take a look. “I want someone with zero investment in how (the land value) looks,” she said.
Isnardi, of Palm Bay, represents a district that includes the Indialantic area on the county’s barrier island – as well as the 80-acre Sarno Road landfill in Melbourne and the adjacent Florida Recyclers property.
Commissioner John Tobia, also of Palm Bay, said haggling without the environmental assessment would be like “purchasing a car without looking under the hood.”
“But now the issue is who will be looking under the hood,” he added.
Tobia represents a district that, in the barrier island, includes property from Melbourne Beach south to the Sebastian Inlet.
Isnardi locked horns with Commissioner Curt Smith, of Melbourne, who preferred signing a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a new landfill, one that could last 66 years, on a 3,000-acre piece of land the county already owns on U.S. 192 east of the Osceola County line.
Smith invited Tallahassee attorney David Scott Dee to impress his colleagues with the merits of the U.S. 192 land. Dee’s remarks offset those of Melbourne civil engineer Bruce Moia, who pitched the Florida Recyclers property. Smith said the U.S. 192 land is surrounded by pastures, while the Florida Recyclers land is surrounded by a daycare center and other urban uses that would be affected by an enlarged landfill. “But it’s already a landfill,” Isnardi said.
She opposed turning the U.S. 192 land, in the west end of her district, into a new landfill because it would give the county a bad image for visitors from Orange or Osceola counties. Smith dismissed those concerns.
“Would you feel the same way if it was in Viera?” Isnardi asked, referring to part of Smith’s district.
Smith’s district also includes the Satellite Beach and Indian Harbour Beach areas on the barrier island.
County Solid Waste Director Euripedes Rodriguez says the Sarno Road landfill is some 85 percent filled and could last up to 4 more years before needing to be capped.
He said the county has already spent about $14 million to pursue state and federal permits to turn the U.S. 192 land into a landfill.
Tobia urged his colleagues to sign the Corps of Engineers permit – even if the county didn’t use it – so Rodriguez could cite that property as an option when haggling with Florida Recyclers.
