A mitigation bank is a regulated site where approved restoration, enhancement, creation, or preservation generates credits that can compensate for authorized impacts to wetlands or other aquatic resources. It can provide conservation benefits and also functions as a credit business. Both facts can be true.
Tarpon Woods status: SWFWMD Application 930235 / ERP 47575.002 remains incomplete in the reviewed record. The applicant’s proposed plan and credit calculations are not an issued permit. See Current Status.
Sets the state framework: permit criteria, phases, credits, release schedule, service area, accounting, limits on local regulation of bank operations, financial responsibility, and long-term protection/management.
Official statuteAddresses mitigation-bank application content, credit establishment, land-use restrictions, financial responsibility, and other permit mechanics.
Current adopted chapterProvides the Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method for describing and scoring ecological functions, time lag, risk, and mitigation quantity. UMAM does not itself issue a permit.
Current adopted chapterLocal-authority limit—attorney review required: §373.4136(8) says a local government may not require permits or impose regulations governing a mitigation bank’s operation. It preserves local authority to require authorization under local ordinance for construction activities associated with the bank. A separate land-development proposal is a different decision; the statute’s project-specific boundary should not be inferred without County and attorney review.
Rule-currentness note: FDEP had Chapter 62-342 rule development underway in 2026. Draft material is not treated here as adopted law. Application of the statute/rules to a permit or dispute requires agency and attorney review.
The current applicant’s March 2026 filing calculates a proposed 37.67 credits across types and assessment areas. That is an applicant calculation under review—not an agency award or released balance.
For permits issued after July 1, 2025, §373.4136 provides a default sequence:
The statute includes special provisions and allows an applicant to propose an alternative schedule for agency consideration. The issued permit controls the project-specific schedule.
The permitting agency establishes a geographic service area for a state mitigation bank. The area is intended to relate the bank’s ecological functions to the watersheds and resources where credits may be used.
A proposed service-area map in an application is not final until the agency acts. A service area also does not mean every project inside it may automatically use the bank; the impact project must obtain its own authorization and satisfy applicable mitigation requirements.
Credits are a regulatory accounting unit, not a claim that two sites are physically identical. Agency review considers resource type, watershed/service area, function, cumulative impacts, availability, and other governing criteria.
Buying a credit can transfer compensatory-mitigation responsibility under the applicable program; it does not erase the impact site or turn the bank into the impacted place.
Restricts uses within a recorded legal description and identifies enforcement and reserved rights. It does not automatically create public access or protect land outside its boundary.
Rule 62-342.650Provides approved financial backing for construction/implementation and perpetual management obligations. The mechanism and amount must satisfy the governing requirements.
Rule 62-342.700May include inspection, invasive/nuisance control, repairs, monitoring, access/security, and adaptive management. “Perpetual” describes the obligation, not a guarantee that no intervention will ever be needed.
FDEP overviewA recorded mitigation-bank easement is intended to provide long-term protection and can restrict development within its boundary while also authorizing ecological restoration and management. The resulting land may no longer function, look, or remain accessible as a golf course.
Release language—attorney review required: Florida Statutes §704.06(4) says an easement holder may release a conservation easement to the fee holder. That does not establish that this proposed easement would be freely or readily reversible. Any project-specific conclusion depends on the final permit and recorded instrument, the holder or holders, third-party enforcement rights, regulatory requirements, title, and other applicable law.
Depending on an issued permit and easement, allowed work can include vegetation treatment, planting, seeding, thinning, mowing, prescribed fire or alternatives, hydrologic work, structures, access, fencing/signage, monitoring equipment, and maintenance. Those are general possibilities—not a statement that every activity applies at Tarpon Woods.
Still under review: SWFWMD requested additional details and no permit has been issued. Final authorized work could differ from current filings.
See the claims comparisonFlorida’s SWFWMD/FDEP mitigation-bank permit process is distinct from the federal USACE mitigation-bank process under 33 C.F.R. Part 332 and 40 C.F.R. Part 230. Federal bank instruments have their own service area, plan, credit release, accounting, and Interagency Review Team process.
RIBITS is the Corps’ national tracking system for federal mitigation banks and in-lieu fee programs. A state application form’s generic federal references do not establish a project-specific federal approval.
State permitted-bank check: FDEP's official statewide Mitigation Banks layer states that it represents banks permitted under section 373.4136 by FDEP or a water management district and contains available data through August 2026. A September 1 fielded substring query found no Brooker Creek or Tarpon Woods listing; the Pinellas County result was North Shore Seagrass. That is consistent with Brooker Creek not yet appearing as a state-permitted bank, but it does not decide the pending application or exclude an incomplete, withdrawn, unissued, informal, or differently indexed matter. FDEP describes the map as illustrative and unsuitable for regulatory, engineering, or legal determinations. See the query and evidence limits.
Brooker Creek federal-record update as of September 1, 2026: targeted RIBITS, Corps Regulatory Request System, and Jacksonville District public-notice searches did not locate an exact project-specific public notice or RIBITS bank/site entry. A separate search of the Corps' official ORM Project Locations public layer did locate a project-location record under DA number SAJ-2025-02276-JLA, named “TARPON WOODS PROPERTIES, LLC / BROOKER CREEK MITIGATION BANK / 1100 TARPON WOODS BLVD / PINELLAS,” with request type NWP. The layer supplies associated polygon geometry but does not state what boundary it represents or establish survey accuracy or legal effect; it also does not disclose the Nationwide Permit number, receipt or decision date, status, verification, authorization, jurisdictional determination, or outcome. Read the complete federal-track explanation and disclosure demand.
Last verified September 1, 2026. Statute and rule application requires attorney/agency review. Current applicant statements are not presented as agency findings.
