A county ordinance passed in 1999 requires utility companies to get permission from the commission to operate in the county. In the end, the commissioners decided not to vote because the resolution would have obligated the county to provide water for Nocatee, and they said the 1999 ordinance gives them enough control over the situation. However, Commissioner Nicholas Meiszer made a motion that was never seconded to pass the resolution. While the board is open to looking at the issue when the county's financial obligations are clear, Tuesday's inaction was essentially a 4-1 vote against the resolution. We have enough control at this point with our other ordinance.
Nobody can come in without our permission.
She said she did not want to obligate the county to spending millions of dollars and drawing untold amounts of water from the aquifer beneath an area in which the St. Johns River Water Management District has said the resources are short. JEA is building well fields on the west side of Duval County, where there is said to be an abundance of water. This water could be used by Nocatee. But Young said the district's report is not as bad as people are making it out to be. He said there is plenty of water beneath the ground in the north.