Page 2 - Lee Constantine News Today

A rest area along Interstate 4 in Longwood can only accommodate 30 semi-tractor trailer trucks. There is a plan to build a new location in Sanford with 132 spaces.

Residents in rural east Orange County celebrated Wednesday the dramatic early morning defeat of the latest mega-development proposing to build hundreds of homes on a former cattle ranch in the environmentally sensitive Econ River basin. Many, wearing their red “Stop Urban Sprawl” t-shirts from previous fights, endured a marathon Orange County commission meeting Tuesday to cheer the 4-3 vote ...

The state appears headed toward a purchase of the 1,314-acre Yarborough ranch near the Econlockhatchee River in east Seminole, county leaders said Tuesday, part of a move to protect it permanently from development under the Florida Forever conservation program. “All indications are that we will be approved,” County Manager Darren Gray said in updating commissioners regarding the county’s ...

Local government leaders from across Florida say they support their community’s fertilizer bans.

A highly anticipated new report from the University of Florida argues there isn’t enough research to determine whether seasonal fertilizer bans help stop pollution from dumping into Florida waterways. It’s a claim that questions a tool that scores of local Florida governments, including nearly two dozen in Pinellas County, have used for years in an effort to improve water quality. The ...

The federal government is offering millions of dollars to local communities to install charging stations in public places in an effort to spur more Americans to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle. But so far only a few Central Florida governments have applied for the nearly-free federal cash. And in a state whose residents have mixed attitudes about environmental initiatives, it’s not ...

As the state considers purchasing 1,314 acres of pasture land in rural east Seminole for conservation and to fill in a crucial gap in a statewide wildlife corridor, county commissioners plan to give the landowners $3.4 million to hold off a sale to developers. Environmentalists and conservationists urged county leaders at this week’s commission meeting to hand the taxpayer money to the ...

Nearly a year after a judge ordered former state lawmaker Chris Dorworth’s development firm to pony up more than $432,000 to reimburse Seminole County’s legal expenses after a failed lawsuit, Dorworth still hasn’t paid and says he has no intention of doing so. It’s a maddening turn of events for officials who prevailed in the years-long legal battle, but now must fight Dorworth’s claim that ...

PFAS: Have you heard of them? They are a group of widespread and troubling contaminants, and they could be in your drinking water. Your utility knows if they are, or it will soon. But it may not go out of its way to let you know. An Orlando Sentinel survey found reluctance among some local utility, government and industry leaders to be fully transparent – to go beyond transparency specifically ...

A State Representative in Palm Beach County believes the new law aimed to tackle the ongoing opioid crisis in Florida is a step in the right direction.