The Welaunee Development is underway. This project is described as promising, with providing jobs and housing to the area. But, local environmental activists say the area has been quickly dismantled by clear cutting of its trees without consulting them.
Ann Bidlingmair founded Treewatch in 1981, to protect local green spaces and instill a tree ordinance. Despite what developers are doing, Bidlingmair says she believes the current state of the Welaunee Development does not follow the city’s environmental initiatives.
"Steve Ghazvini has the property rights to that," Bidlingmair said. "And what they’re doing there has nothing like what our board envisioned. They are just going out, and clear cutting, which is what Ghazvini has traditionally done. So, it’s for homes, multi-family, senior citizen centers, school…But I don’t see that there’s any kind of planning going into it, because they’re clear cutting without site plans from what I can tell."
Bidlingmair plans to meet with the City of Tallahassee this Thursday to find out if the site plans do comply with the tree ordinance.