By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Local airboat operator Jim Passmore is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the future of his business.

Passmore, who runs Marsh Landing Adventures, will go before the Osceola County Planning Commission tonight to request a recommendation he be allowed to operate his eco-tourism airboat business from a dock he plans to build on Lake Tohopekaliga at 2500 Cherokee Road. He currently runs airboat tours into nearby Goblet’s Cove from Partin Triangle Park, a county facility on the east side of the lake.

For Passmore, the “rock” is that as of today he no longer is allowed to run tours out of the county park, given that the County Commission several months ago voted to prohibit the loading or unloading of commercial airboat passengers at any public boat ramp or dock on the lake.

The “hard place” is that Passmore, who has owned the 4.5-acre site since August of 2008 where he plans to build the boat dock, is facing opposition from residents, mainly because they don’t want a business in their neighborhood and don’t want the noise associated with airboats.

To operate from the site on Cherokee Road, Passmore needs a conditional use permit for the business, since it is in an area zoned estate residential. He said he bought the property as an investment, adding that the business would employ 12 to 14 people. The Osceola County Commission would ultimately approve the permit.

“I spent two years trying to get an alternative site at existing private docks, but everything out there is under contract,” Passmore said May 26 at a public meeting on his proposal.

Passmore added he is “very concerned” with the residents who live along Cherokee Road and that he encourages residents to contact him with questions.

“We will abide by all laws to the fullest,” he said.

The conditions

County staff has recommended the permit, but with a long list of conditions, which include the following:

• Must comply with all state regulations relating to airboat operations around snail kite nesting sites.

• Airboats can operate from the site only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

• No refueling or repair of boats can be done at the site.

• The dock would be limited to six boat berths, with no more than 20 total tours conducted from the site per day. Airboats would be limited to six passengers each.

• Customers would be shuttled to the site from the business’ operations center at 4245 13th St. in St. Cloud, with no more than 16 total round-trips allowed per day for all shuttles. There also would be a limit of 20 customers allowed at the site an any given time.

• No more than two parked vehicles would be allowed at the site at any time.

• And Cherokee Road must be upgraded to support fire rescue vehicles and there must be a turnaround on site for those vehicles.

In addition, the business must adhere to all state regulations in terms of the licensing and the equipment used on the airboats, including the latest available equipment for noise reduction. Plus, noise cannot exceed 90 decibels at 50 feet, a state requirement, or airboaters would be subject to a $93 fine. Airboat operators also would need the appropriate commercial licenses as would shuttle drivers. Plus, Passmore would have to obtain all the necessary state permits for building the 250-foot-long, 6-foot-wide dock jutting onto the lake.

Residents comment

Resident AnnaRee LeClerc said her concern would be the passenger vans.

“We have a residential neighborhood; we don’t want passenger vans going through our landscape; this will change our quiet neighborhood.”

Kattya Graham, another resident, took issue with Passmore calling his operation “eco-tourism,” saying that motorized boats in general – because they use fuel and make noise – by their very nature are not environmentally friendly.

Resident Jane Karlsten said she and her neighbors are not pleased that they have to fight another application for a conditional use permit for a commercial marina, given that a similar request with a different applicant failed in July of 2010 for the same neighborhood.

In a printed statement Karlsten handed out at the community meeting, she said that the county could manage airboat tour businesses from public boat ramps but instead is “sending the problem to someone else’s back yard” where the county and residential taxpayers “have no power to manage or control the outcome.”

“Our neighborhood is the first scapegoat for the commercial airboat tour business problems facing Osceola County,” Karlsten stated. “Which quiet lakefront community will be invaded next – all with the blessings of the county so that the county does not need to deal with the airboat tour business?”

Other details

While there is a ban on commercial airboat operations at county facilities, Passmore can still put his airboats into the water at Partin Triangle Park but the pilots would have to navigate the vessels to the new dock to pick up passengers.

Passmore said the airboats while giving the tours would operate at idle speed 85 percent to 90 percent of the time, thereby reducing noise levels. He also said noise levels close to residential areas would be 20 decibels under the state limit.

No structures – including restrooms – would be allowed at the marina site. Also, no business signs would be allowed.