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Public Records Requests Generally and Specific File Review
Because the Environmental Protection Commission is a political
subdivision of the State of Florida, it is required to comply with the
Public Records Laws in
Chp. 119, Florida
Statutes.
Thus, the EPC’s files and other documents that are defined as public
records are available for public viewing with minor exception.
EPC’s public records are made available to anyone, and can be
beneficial to a prospective buyer of a property, a consultant performing a
site assessment, or any interested party. Generally, files are only
available on properties which have been reviewed by, or have projects which
have been permitted or enforced against by the EPC.
Properties with no past EPC regulatory involvement will most likely
not have a file within the EPC.
General
Records Requests: To inquire about any
EPC public record regarding a piece of property or if you want to view all
public records regarding a certain topic, project, or agency action, contact
the EPC Legal Department at (813) 627-2600 x 1054 (or write or
e-mail the Legal
Department at 3629 Queen Palm Drive, Tampa FL 33619) and they will forward
the request to all the appropriate EPC divisions and the Legal Department
will provide a coordinated response to the requestor.
To facilitate requests, please
provide to the EPC the project or property owner name, address or folio
number, and the section-township-range of the subject property.
Specific
File Requests:
If you want to review a specific file/record and you know what
Division it is in, you may call the administrative assistant directly in
that Division. If you would like to
discuss information in the file by setting up a file review session, please
call (813) 627-2600 and ask for the specific division the file is in.
Other
agencies may have files: It may be necessary to
review files in two or more EPC divisions or multiple governments so please
do not assume EPC is the only agency that has relevant files (e.g. - DEP,
Hillsborough County, US EPA, Tampa Port Authority, SWFWMD, HCHD, DOH, DOT,
DCA, City of Tampa, US Army Corps, USFWS, etc).
Copying Information: With reasonable notice, staff is
available to copy any information from a file generally at $0.15 per page
for 8 1/2 x 11” size documents, but double-sided ($0.20) and larger document
(actual cost of supplies and material) will cost more.
Please contact the Legal Department
for pricing of copies. Additionally,
projects which take an extensive amount of time to copy or redact may incur
additional expense for staff time and copying costs.
Payment must be made before copies are made or received.
You can also view files in our office, if you do not want to pay for
copies. If a file exists
electronically, you may request that we forward it to your e-mail address.
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