Mining Permit Required?

There is never a dull moment around here... but that also means people are watching/reading what I am writing/posting...

I teased this article yesterday with an image of a drone shot over what appears to be a sand mine/borrow pit. The headline with the image was "New borrow pit operating in Lecanto without permits?"

Within 5 mins, I get a call from the owner of the property asking me why I did not reach out to him first. Man.. feels good that news travel that fast.. which means people are paying attention to what I post.

That said, he had no idea what I was even writing about. He assumed it was negative, but I did say, "full story tomorrow".

Sure, clickbait title.. I'll admit that. But threatening to send the lawyers after me? How about you read the article before all that.

If you want the short version... yes, they are allowed to mine here.. and no.. they do not need a mining permit to do so. Read the rest to find out why.

Ready for a deep dive on a Friday? This is going very deep.. 2200 words deep. Hang tight.

How did we get here?

Well a few months ago, someone reached out to me concerned about what appeared to be a mine in Lecanto off Homosassa trail. A lot of truck traffic was coming in and out of the area, so they were concerned about all of that. I told them I would look into it.

Here is the location of this site. The area in pink is the site.

According to court docs, these 5 parcels were purchased in June of 2025 for $800,000 by Lecanto Sand, LLC. Dirt Boys, INC was the original owner. They still own the large square parcel to the north.

Here is the court recording for those 5 parcels in pink.

The wooded area directly south between the two roads was also purchased by Lecanto Sand, LLC in June as well for $1,050.,000... also from Dirt Boys, INC

Here is the court recording for this purchase

The first thing I do is head to the property appraiser website to see what the property is zoned.

Weird thing here. When I first looked 2 months ago, these parcels were listed as LDRMH, which is low density residential with mobile homes allowed. However, a couple of weeks ago, they were changed to EXT (extractive), which is what they are listed as of today.

I thought that was odd since there were no zoning change applications approved in that time, so I reached out to the property appraiser's office and they said there was a mistake on their website that they corrected. They should be EXT per the GIS. So apparently, double check the property appraiser's website with the GIS.

The 4 pink parcels on the above map are zoned EXT. Here is the GIS screenshot for confirmation. I am told by the property appraisers office to go by that rather than the PA website, so I will be using that going forward and using PA to verify sales data.

I won't show all 4 parcels here for the sake of space, but all 4 of those parcels are zoned Extractive.

Now, back to the question... "Do they have mining permits to mine here?"

The answer is "No", but that does not mean they are breaking the law or county ordinances.

I did a public records request for the mining permits for those 4 northern parcels that are zoned Extractive.

I received two documents for conditional use. The first was dated April 24, 2006. The 2nd was dated June 20, 2008. These applications were for a vegetative grinder to be used on site to recycle vegetation.

The 2006 application was approved. In 2008, that application was denied.

It is worth noting, this application applied for 25 acres, so the area in pink I showed before and the rectangular area below it.

Those are the only two applications for mining that the county says exist. So I followed up with the county to find out if the zoning occurred prior to the LDC change, if it was a vested rights under Chapter 4 of the LDC.

This is the response I got back from the county.

So there you have it. The county is on record of saying that the property was zoned EXT prior to 1990, so they do not need a mining permit to do a mine today.

That covers the portion of this picture you see from the trucks back to the "ramp" coming down from the left in the back.

According to the county those parcels are zoned extractive, so all good and dandy to be mining there.

However, I will follow back up with this question.

According to Chapter 4 of the LDC, in order to maintain vested rights of a mine which was lawfully in existence prior to the LDC amendment, they are supposed to have a vested rights application. I did not specifically ask for that, so it likely was not searched for to give me. So I will follow up and ask for that.

Further, the LDC also requires the operation to file a Biennial Mining Report and failure to do so for 3 consecutive years will trigger a need to resubmit and get approval for the vested rights. Again, did not ask for that specifically, so will add that to the list.

The LDC has other requirements for registration.

There is also a section regarding Valid Nonconforming Use. This would allow a mine recognized by the county prior to September 9, 2008 to continue operating.

So I will ask for all of that as well for a follow up story. This will provide you a clear picture of what exactly is the case here.

But for now, according to the county, no mining permit needed to do what they are doing.

I am not expecting that to change, but I have more questions regarding the LDC I will do records requests for and will let you know what is found.

Ok.. well what about SWFWMD?

This is where things get muddy. On a call with SWFWMD, they confirmed that there were no active permits for this location. They had seen some activity in the past, but nothing active. The SWFWMD website shows no Environment Resource Permit.

The pink is the location. The Green shows permits that had been applied for prior. This confirms what SWFWMD said on the phone.

This shows a map of all permits.. again, nothing for this site according to the SWFWMD website.

If you recall, the proposed borrow pit in Pine Ridge needed an ERP and the state is going through that process. Not sure why this site would not need one as well, but perhaps they do not. Maybe they do not expect any ground water issues, but the parkway did not expect an excavator to be swallowed up by ground water either.

The owner did call me and said that SWFWMD was on his property yesterday and that everything was fine. So we will go with that, unless I am told otherwise by SWFWMD or DEP, which I have pending requests to.

So assume no issues with SWFWMD or DEP for this site.

Now, aside from all of that, I noticed something that was interesting. Remember that rectangle parcel I mentioned?

According to the GIS, that parcel is zoned LDRMH and NOT Extractive like the northern parcels. The owner told me that is incorrect and that it is also zoned Extractive. The GIS shows the future land use is Extractive, but not current zoning.

So which is it? This is a big deal because the current zoning dictates what you are able to do on the property, not the future land use.

While it does not appear that they are mining that area, there appears that development has occurred on the parcel since they purchased it. According to the LDC, any development requires a permit to be able to do it. Clearing trees and things like that require permit. Certain development also requires a site development plan.

Here is the county's definition of development per the LDC.

Development: The carrying out of any building activity or mining operation, the making of any material change in the use or appearance of any structure or land, or the dividing of land into three or more parcels. This definition includes al references as specified in Section 380, F.S.

Has there been development? You tell me. View the satellite images and decide for yourself.

This is the satellite image from June 26th, two days after Lecanto Sand purchased the property. The red circle is the property we are discussing.

Clearly, lots of foliage on the property, no real signs of mining, dirt, etc. Fast forward to September 19th, 2025, we start to see some dirt open up on those extractive parcels.

Notably, that southern rectangle portion is still green for the most part. Starting around November 5, 2025, we start to see some clearing being done to that rectangular portion.

November 13, 2025

And November 28, 2025

Clearly, you can see that the southern lot is starting to get cleared and the northern lots are being prepared for the borrow pit.

Jump ahead to January 17, 2026.

And satellite image from February 21, 2026 to confirm.

And the recent drone picture.

For the sake of argument, since those are pretty low res images and you may not be able to see the property very well, here is a higher resolution image from January 4, 2025. Clearly a different look than what we see today.

Is that considered development to the county? Or is this parcel also zoned Extractive, like the others and the GIS is incorrect? As of this writing, I have a question out to the county to answer that... is this parcel zoned extractive or LDR as the GIS shows?

Once I get that answer, I will update here.

Apparently, the County needs a code complaint to be able to investigate if there is a violation of county codes/LDC/etc. So stay tuned for that.

My next records request to the county was for any development permits on this specific parcel (Altkey: 1507367)

I received two documents in this request.

The first one was a permit application for a T-Pole for a well in 2002.

The other was for a new non-residential construction, which appears to be for a vegetative grinder, which appears was withdrawn.

That is it. According to the county, there are no other permits, site plans, development agreements, etc for that southern parcel, yet it has been cleared completely.

Does that qualify as development under the LDC or is this parcel included in the extractive zoned parcels and thus grandfathered in for mining purposes without the need for a permit?

The answer to that question will be key in determining what is happening here and if there are any code violations.

Now, things get a bit more interesting. Lecanto Sand currently has an application into the county to rezone approximately 75.4 acres from LDR to EXT. This is CPA/AA/PUD-2025-00010 and was filed July 14, 2025. According to the "Look Whats Coming" update on Feb 13th, the application has been found insufficient.

What parcels are in the application?

According to the property appraiser, Lecanto Sand owns 10 parcels.

Those 10 parcels are included in the application for rezoning.

Per the application:

"Owner request for extraction designation on all lots as well as landfill rights"

Why would they include parcels that are already zoned extractive? Adding the landfill rights perhaps?

There are 15.24 acres already zoned extractive according to the GIS. The rest are zoned LDR, with future land use of LDR, with the exception of that one 15.15 acre parcel (the rectangle) that has a future land use of extractive, but currently zoned LDR.

Would that also remove the vested rights from the property as they are now doing a PUD application and require them to go through the mining permitting process with the county?

What happens if the project is denied? This will ultimately come before the BOCC. Does that change anything with the existing parcels?

Another interesting thing that I have not seen here before. Lecanto Sand has brought on Gene McGee as a lobbyist for them. I presume it is for this project.

I have never seen a lobbyist brought on to help with a zoning application before. Maybe it is a common thing, but I do not recall it happening. Perhaps that is because of the new requirements for lobbyists to register after the fallout of the 491 issue last year... prior to that, they were never required to register when they helped a client, now they are.

In any case, if his name sounds familiar, he is the former lobbyist for Citrus County and current school board lobbyist... and a good one at that.

Phew.. That was a lot to digest on a Friday... but a deep dive like this shows you what is going on. We still have some questions to answer with things, but as you saw, everything seems to be above the board, despite concerns from the citizens in the county.

Remember, there are many things the county cannot control or stop from happening... it appears that this site may be one of them. However, the BOCC certainly has a say in the expansion of the extractive areas and the request for zoning changes... so we will continue to watch where that goes.