Builders hear wetlands rules
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

More than 50 people - but only a few from Port Aransas - attended a three-hour-long, standing-room-only meeting on Thursday, April 5, on developing wetlands properties.

The meeting, held at the Aransas Pass municipal court room, was hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) under an agreement reached with Port Aransas developer Steve Couchman, who is building on the State Hwy. 361 causeway between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass.

Couchman's construction was stopped by the Corps of Engineers, who said he hadn't applied for the right permits to build in a wetland. The agreement that would let him proceed and apply for permits called for him to finance the meeting as well as pay a fine and restore at least part of the property he'd started building on.

At hand to talk about the perils of building in wetlands were representatives from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas General Land Office and the National Marine Fisheries Service, besides the Corps.

Each of the five speakers had an audio visual presentation, which meant the audience sat for most of the three hours in a darkened room. Nobody seemed to fall asleep.

Under federal law, the Corps of Engineers oversees any construction in coastal waters, which includes any navigable waterway or a connection to a navigable waterway. Under some circumstances, the CoE also has jurisdiction over fresh water wetlands that aren't connected to a waterway, said Lloyd Mullins, supervisor of the Corps of Engineers regional office in Corpus Christi.

It was John Wong, project manager in the Corpus Christi office, who got the audience's immediate attention, however.

"We have required projects to revert to the original condition if we find it can't be permitted," Wong said.

That means tear down everything you've done and put it back the way it was.

Better to find out beforehand whether the project can get a permit, he said.

In fact, that was the message of each of the speakers: Start working on permits early to learn what can and can't be done with construction on or near a wetland.

While speakers from Parks and Wildlife, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed that they provide advice to the Corps of Engineers on permit applications, Amy Muniz, of the General Land Office's Corpus Christi office, pointed out that the state also has authority over wetlands.

"If someone places something on public (wetlands), they're subject to enforcement procedures," Muniz said.

Fees from state permits go to the Texas Permanent School Fund, she said.

The good news from the afternoon came from Jesse Soliz, of the local permit service center of the Coastal Coordination Council. Soliz said his office exists to help people through the permit process, and will even track permit applications and maintain a status report on them.

The permit service center will virtually combine the state and federal applications to make it easier and quicker to get through the process, he said.

He can be reached at (361) 825- 3050, he said.

The meeting paved the way for Couchman to continue with a project along State Hwy. 361 that has been gaining the attention of people who travel the Port Aransas-Aransas Pass causeway. He has built three houses on the causeway's north side and had started a commercial building nearby when the Corps of Engineers halted work.

The project, called West of Key West, is to include a restaurant, hotel, bar and rental for kayaks and personal watercraft.

But Couchman doesn't see his construction as the start of development all along the causeway.

"I think there were some people interested in a project (between his building and Aransas Pass)," he said, "but I haven't heard anything from them in a while."

Couchman said while much of the land along the north side of the causeway is in private hands, the land south of the highway belongs to the General Land Office, with an easement to the Texas Department of Transportation.

"I don't see anything ever being built there," he said.