It began two years ago as the Magnolia Bay Marina and Resort www.floridasportsman.com/casts/070409, a development project by Dr. J. Crayton Pruitt, a retired St. Petersburg heart surgeon, and an accompanying firm.

The original project called for the excavation of 26 acres of salt marsh, filling in almost 9 acres of the marsh for a marina, and dredging a two-mile-long channel offshore through the seagrasses that are protected by the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve.

Hosts of anglers and scallopers, as well as a mass of environmental groups such as the Florida Wildlife Federation and Clean Water Network, fought against the development. State and federal agencies eventually halted development. The Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed Magnolia Bay Marina and Resort threatened what it considered to be an "aquatic resource of national importance."

Now, the project is once again making headlines under a new name, Reserve at Sweetwater Estuary. The new project ditched the marina and channel, but added a golf course.

According to the Gainesville Sun, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Mike Sole had to personally intervene on a Suwannee River Water Management District meeting recently which could have voted the go-ahead on the project. Environmental advocates are rallying opposition in advance of a rescheduled Feb. 12 vote.

Beverly Birkitt, an environmental consultant for Pruitt’s project, said in exchange for this new project, Pruitt would restore and create a total of 257 acres of wetlands and buy three credits from a wetlands mitigation bank. "However you cut it, there's significantly more mitigation being provided than what is required," she said.

But the DEP feels their concerns over the potential destructive impacts of the project have not been quelled. A DEP letter in October outlined concerns such as the project's impact on wetlands and the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve, and a lack of information on issues such as where the project would get its water.

The DEP also questioned why the golf course was located on wetlands and not farther upland on the 1,250-acre project site.

According to the Gainesville Sun, the Department hadn't received a response to those concerns when the district issued a Dec. 21 memorandum recommending the project be approved.

Joe Murphy of the Gulf Restoration Network, one of several environmental groups against the newest project, said Mike Sole's actions to stop the vote show the project must undergo much more scrutiny.

“We really feel like this is Florida's last frontier," Murphy said. "If this had been proposed 20 years ago it might have slid right through. It's a new day in Florida."

Jon Dinges, Suwannee River Water District Resource Management Director, said officials believed Pruitt addressed the District's concerns. He said the decision was delayed as a courtesy to the Florida DEP.