Application 930235 / ERP 47575.002
The applicants filed a 121-page RAI response on August 26. SWFWMD had not shown a completeness determination or approval in the record reviewed through September 1.
Read current statusCampaign position, not an agency finding
The golf course can disappear in more than one way
Save Tarpon Woods opposes the Brooker Creek Mitigation Bank as proposed. The official file still contains material technical, legal, environmental, and financial questions. Incomplete is not protection.
Campaign position, not an agency finding. If this application is permitted, Tarpon Woods stops being a golf course and becomes a private wetland-credit site—not a public park. If it is denied or withdrawn, no agency order requires continued golf-course operation. Any different future proposal would require its own complete public record and separate approvals. That is why residents must engage now and insist that this application be decided on proof, not promises.
Official record facts
Application 889588 / ERP 47575.000
Withdrawn in December 2024 after a design that described hydrologic restoration, pond-to-marsh work, and fencing.
Compare the earthwork recordsApplication 907654 / ERP 47575.001
Withdrawn in November 2025 after a 172.59-acre design describing excavation, pond and ditch filling, and roughly 79.57 potential credits. It is historical—not the current design—but must be reconciled.
Read the three-file comparisonBoundary and acreage reconciliation
The record uses 147.09-, 168.40-, 172.59-, and 172.46-acre figures in different documents. The project, credit, security, survey, and easement boundaries should be reconciled on one signed-and-sealed exhibit.
Read the application comparisonProject conservation easement
No recorded project conservation easement was identified in the record reviewed through September 1, 2026.
See how easements and credits workThe paths residents must watch
Two permit outcomes. Neither guarantees “the course stays.”
Campaign position, not an agency finding. The immediate decision is whether SWFWMD should authorize this mitigation bank. Approval would change the landscape into a regulated credit site. Denial or withdrawal would end this application, but it would not compel continued golf-course operation or approve a different future use.
Worst case if the permit issues
Door A: The bank is permitted
The course closes. Neighbors do not get a park.
Campaign position, not an agency finding. A mitigation bank generates credits that may be used to offset authorized wetland impacts elsewhere. The land is managed for those credits. It is not a county park, not a public golf course, and not a promise of trails. Fencing, “site security,” restoration work, and years of management are ordinary bank tools. Application 930235 remains under review, so the public does not have an approved final drawing set. The two withdrawn files described materially different excavation, pond, ditch, and restoration work—not an untouched fairway.
- What would have to be true in the record
- SWFWMD issues 47575.002; a conservation easement is recorded on the final legal description; financial assurances are posted; and credits are awarded and released in stages. For permits issued after July 1, 2025, Florida law can release about 30% of credits when the easement is recorded and assurances are in. Read the statute context.
- What residents live with
- Golf gone; construction and management next to homes; possible flooding or water-table change depending on final hydrology (not established); wildlife displacement during conversion; no public 18-hole landscape; and credits leaving the neighborhood to offset destruction elsewhere.
- What this would not prove
- That water quality in Lake Tarpon improves as advertised; that fencing stays “minimal”; or that every acre residents think of as “the course” is inside the easement.
- Watch
- Staff report, intended agency action, final C-1 and exhibits versus the 172.59 / 168.40 / 172.46 figures, conservation-easement legal, clubhouse/parking carve-out (about 2.43 acres), and Parcel 3.
If the bank is denied or withdrawn
Door B: This application ends
Denial does not keep a golf course open.
Campaign position, not an agency finding. SWFWMD can deny this mitigation-bank application, but it cannot compel private golf-course operation. Any different future proposal would need its own complete application, evidence, public notice, and approvals. No such future project is approved by denial.
- What would have to be true in the record
- SWFWMD denies the application, or the applicant withdraws it. The agency’s order or withdrawal record would control the procedural result.
- What residents live with
- The requested bank permit is not issued, but the land’s future remains unresolved unless a voluntary conservation, recreation, operating, or acquisition arrangement is actually funded and executed.
- What this would not prove
- That the course must remain open, that the land is automatically conserved, or that any different future use is approved.
- Watch
- The SWFWMD disposition and any later official County, state, or federal filing affecting the land.
Why the developer website is not the permit
Campaign position, not an agency finding. Public website promises must be tested against the actual application, staff review, final exhibits, and recorded instruments.
1. “No earthwork”
Confirmed only as a proponent statement
The withdrawn 889588 file contains Lisa Cartwright’s August 14, 2024 applicant statement: The overall design plan includes scraping down existing upland areas to create freshwater marsh wetlands, filling existing open water ponds to the seasonal high water elevation restoring freshwater marsh wetlands…
The agency viewer last displayed Application 930235 as Incomplete, and no later completeness determination or permit approval was shown through September 1, 2026; this historical quotation does not establish its current design.
Read the August 14, 2024 applicant RAI response in SWFWMD’s official file · Compare the records
2. Easement “at the beginning”
Not established in reviewed record
No recorded project conservation easement was found. The approximately 30% credit release is tied to recordation after a permit exists.
Read the decision sequence3. “No homes within the bank area”
Confirmed only as a proponent statement
The final recorded easement and legal description—not a website sentence—would establish what land is restricted by the bank.
Compare the public claims4. Water-quality improvement
Confirmed only as a proponent prediction
The withdrawn file also says treated effluent would keep flowing through the bank wetlands and ultimately discharge to Brooker Creek. That is an applicant statement, not an agency water-quality finding. The agency viewer last displayed Application 930235 as Incomplete, and no later completeness determination or permit approval was shown through September 1, 2026; its current design therefore remains unestablished by an agency decision.
Compare the water-quality claim · Read the application history
Why “incomplete” is dangerous for residents, not comforting
Campaign position, not an agency finding. Incomplete means the applicant has not finished proving the proposal to SWFWMD. It does not protect the land or guarantee continued golf-course operation. It means neighbors cannot verify earthwork, fence lines, pond conversion, credit acreage, or Parcel 3 control from a FAQ. Filing an RAI response is not a completeness determination or permit approval.
Why we will not take the FAQ on trust
What we are asking you to do this week
Campaign position, not an agency finding. Act from the verified record now, before a staff report, intended agency action, or separate County filing appears.
- Join alertsHear about the staff report, not a social-media rumor.Join Alerts
- Send a SWFWMD commentReference Application 930235 / ERP 47575.002 and ask that first-hand facts be placed in the file.Write SWFWMD
- Write County officialsAsk for lawful public notice and the full review required if any separate future proposal appears. Do not invent an application that has not been filed.Official County channels
- Read before you speakUse the named-person roster and application comparison rather than a meme.Who Is InvolvedApplications
- Submit dated evidenceShare photos, flooding observations, wildlife, and public-record leads privately for review.Submit EvidenceReport Flooding
Sample comment
Optional copy-and-paste starting point. Not legal advice. Edit it so it truthfully reflects your own relationship and knowledge.
I am a [resident/neighbor] of Tarpon Woods / Ridgemoor. Please associate this comment with Brooker Creek Mitigation Bank, Application 930235, ERP 47575.002. The current file still requires complete reconciliation of the withdrawn earthwork designs, current survey and title records, floodway and hydrology evidence, credit calculations, planting commitments, and perpetual financial assurance. I ask SWFWMD not to treat the applicant website as the permitted plan and to deny the application unless and until a complete, internally consistent, professionally certified, and publicly reviewable design satisfies every applicable standard.
Evidence boundary
What we are not claiming
- We are not claiming Application 930235 is approved or denied.
- We are not predicting an unfiled future proposal.
- We are not claiming WHOIS unmasked the owners.
- We are not claiming any named person committed misconduct. Who Is Involved is a roster, not a charge sheet.
- We are not claiming denial preserves the golf course.
- We are not claiming a recorded easement would be worthless. It would restrict whatever land the final instrument lawfully describes.
- This page is not legal advice.
Record reviewedRecheck live agency and County records after seven days before relying on time-sensitive status.