CONSERVATION

Never let it be said that a capitalist can't dance with a government program.

SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY

And while you're celebrating that truth, don't forget this one: A local government can do fair-market business with a capitalist, too, and pay the big bucks to further the public good.

When it comes to conserving the last once-upon-a-time wildness in Collier and Lee counties, local governments and private sellers alike have formed a striking buyer-seller alliance. A capitalist alliance, in other words, with local government playing the role of big spender.

And, if you like the notion of spending your tax money on the good earth, then things are pretty good in Lee, where the program name was invented by an ophthalmologist, apparently — the clear-sighted Conservation 20/20 program.

Its officials have just purchased the 1,726-acre Argo Ranch on the Caloosahatchee River in Alva, for $24 million (about $13,905 per acre). (That deal will be signed off finally at the end of January, too, like the Pepper Ranch.)

So now in Lee, officials have finally broken the 20,000-acre barrier in conserved lands, which are owned by Mr./Ms. Lee County Taxpayer. (The program started in 1995 when county residents voted to tax themselves $50 for every $100,000 of property value to purchase and protect environmentally critical lands.) Since 1996, Conservation 20/20 has spent about $232 million to buy 94 properties.

In Collier County, it's called rather prosaically the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Program. As an example of its good business practices, Conservation Collier just spent $33.9 million (about $13,560 per acre) to buy the 2,500-acre Pepper Ranch from owners who might have developed it or mined it.

"These programs are all willing seller programs - they're completely voluntary, with market-based incentives for land preservation," explains Jennifer Hecker, the natural resource policy manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which works with government officials in both Collier and Lee to buy land.

Although county officials are not allowed to solicit sales from the owners of desirable properties, the non-profit, private Conservancy can and does, acting as point man to a beneficial buy.

"Part of why people will participate is because they have no fear that, as a result of these programs identifying environmentally sensitive lands, the government will take them," Ms. Hecker explains.

Eminent domain it isn't.

"Instead, it's about offering landowners a viable alternative (to development)," she said.

And paying them a competitive-enough price to make it attractive.

Good news, therefore: By the end of next month when the deal is finally closed, you — Mr./Ms. Collier County Taxpayer — will now own "18 locations and 3,848 acres," says Alexandra Sulecki, coordinator of Conservation Collier.

"An additional small amount of acreage adding to existing preserves will trickle in at the beginning of 2009, as deals are closed."

Pretty good, isn't it? And if you just let Ms. Sulecki do the buying for you on that last deal, you might consider guiding her on the next.

"Our process is very responsive to public input," she says. "If people would become engaged, they could certainly shape our outcome more than is being done."

One reason the acreages in the two counties are so different is that Collier — a vast 2,025 square miles — is already rich with public land holdings from federal and state programs in the western Everglades.

But in 1,200-square-mile Lee, one of 67 Florida counties where the average conservation of lands runs about 28 percent, only about 16 percent are public lands. That figure includes both government-owned and managed property, and private land trusts, explains Lynda Thompson, the 20/20 lands program coordinator in Lee.

So officials in either Collier or Lee aren't looking to slow down their buying, even though their bank accounts are puckering up as money grows scarce.

A favorable market

In both county programs, the ability to buy land depends on a robust real estate market and healthy property values that provide tax revenue, officials say. In the down market, there's simply less money.

Ironically, though, "This may be our last opportunity to buy a bounty of really outstanding environmentally significant lands from willing sellers, at favorable market conditions," says Ms. Thompson.

"There's an abundance of willing sellers with astounding properties right now, so we're trying to make hay while the sun shines," says Ms. Thompson. "But I'm just sorry our resources are limited."

By the accounting of many, the two county programs have been wildly successful (pun intended). And they could become more so if officials in Collier and Lee can continue purchasing from willing sellers of pristine or near pristine lands.

"I'm ecstatic about this, about putting more than 20,000 acres in the 20/20 program," says Carl Veaux, a Lee resident and Audubon Society member who has lobbied for public land preservation in both counties.

Up in Lee, he recommends, "We should develop a new goal of maybe 40,000 acres and aim to reach it by the year 2030."

In Collier, similarly, the county should do anything it can to buy more, Mr. Veaux says, pausing to praise its most recent purchase.

"They just bought the Pepper Ranch, which I thought was noble of them because the economy was so bad and they could afford it, and it probably helped out the seller. Which is something akin to the Argo Ranch, in Lee."

All the land is public, although not all of it is accessible. But if you aren't violating explicit rules — no guns or four-wheelers, for example — you won't be arrested if you crawl under a fence and enter the countyowned acreage, either in Collier or Lee, officials say.

But that doesn't mean they want you there on some properties (on 16 of the 18 in Collier, for example) — not, at least, until they can make their new purchases ready for public use.

"Absolutely they'll all be open to the public someday," says Ms. Sulecki.

Which is one point of conserving public land — so you can go see once upon a time.

But there's another point, too, says Ms. Hecker at the Conservancy — especially at the Pepper Ranch.

"Water recharge, water preservation — we need to preserve critical habitat for a lot of reasons. This is primary panther habitat, and that almost always means it's also high recharge habitat, which is preserving our water.

"So if we don't have and preserve the land, not only are the panthers at risk, but we as Floridians are at risk of losing the basics and necessities. We are a tourism and agriculturebased economy depending on where you are, and those are completely enter-twined with the environment. So preserved lands are at the base of our pyramid."

q&a

Florida Weekly asked the two key officials in Collier and Lee Counties — Alexandra Sulecki, the Collier coordinator, and Lynda Thompson, the Lee manager — about their land preservation programs last week. Here is what they said.

FW: What is the most difficult thing about trying to buy and conserve lands now?

Ms. Thompson: "That this may be our last opportunity to buy a bounty of really outstanding environmentally significant lands from willing sellers and at favorable market conditions. The difficult part is that we can't buy it all because of limited funds."

 

Ms. Sulecki: "The most difficult thing is meeting everyone's expectations in regard to what lands should be purchased. There are different ideas of what the priorities for Conservation Collier's are. Some believe properties should be pristine, ecologically sensitive lands; others look at lands as "greenspace" and are more concerned with where lands are. It's sort of a science vs. politics debate. One of the directives in the Conservation Collier ordinance is for "geographic equity," meaning that lands should be acquired throughout the county.

"We are a willing-seller program, so we don't always have the best lands offered in the areas we might like. Nevertheless, we have managed to acquire good lands scattered fairly evenly throughout the county."

FW: What are the ultimate goals of your program, and if you could wave a wand, what would the county look like in 20 years?

Ms. Thompson: "When I look at a map of Florida conservation lands, very little land shows up in Lee County.

 

"I would like to see Lee County have a mosaic of open green space winding through urban areas and in large rural tracts in an amount equal to the surrounding counties and state of Florida.

"Such open space will greatly preserve the quality of life here as well as provide a cost-effective way to improve water quality, maintain our drinking water supply, keep housing out of vulnerable flood-prone areas, and protect large enough areas of native habitat to protect sustainable populations of our distinctive and rare plants and animals.

"It will also help to maintain the thriving eco-tourism industry in Lee County and boost property values on and near to preserves. This industry requires very little public costs to maintain it."

Ms. Sulecki: "If I could wave a wand, Collier County would look like a mosaic of developed and natural lands in the urban area, with large swaths of natural lands in the urban fringe and even larger natural "flow ways" or corridors traversing the rural lands so wildlife has somewhere to live and a way to move through Collier."

FW: How has the economy affected what you can acquire — is it easier to pick up lands since property values have dropped, or harder?

Ms. Thompson: "It is definitely easier."

Ms. Sulecki: "The down economy is both positive and negative. The positive aspect is that prices are lower than they were in 2004-'06, when we first got started buying, and there are many properties being offered for sale that might not have been offered previously.

"The downside is that many people do not understand that the funds Conservation Collier uses are separate from the general county funds, that they can only be used for buying conservation lands. So we can't shift Conservation Collier funds, for example, to libraries so they can stay open longer. People are not happy when their government services are cut and think that money should be shifted from conservation land buying to services, which can't be legally done.

 

"Another challenge is that property values are dropping so fast that appraisals are becoming stale much faster. Our process takes time, so we have been in the situation that people are saying we are paying too much if the property is not purchased immediately upon receipt of the appraisal. Sometimes, we have complications that need to be worked out, such as negotiations for cleanup or removal of structures that require additional processes and take time to resolve. Appraisals are typically good for six months, but in this market the reality is that values are changing faster.

"Also, we have come upon a unique situation. Since nobody else is buying large tracts of land besides government at this point, many of the comparable sales used to establish appraisal value are from recent government buys. So we are essentially trading comparable values between government entities, in a sense setting the market. So, on larger tracts, we may not be getting the best deals. The best deals appear to be on smaller parcels, where the speculators got caught and are selling short — like in North Golden Gate Estates, where we have two multi-parcel projects. It's a good time to buy them, but we want the larger parcels, too."

FW: Can you talk about your budgeting and finance?

 

Ms. Thompson: "Ten percent of our budget is set aside for management. Management uses only the interest on the revenues it receives so that management can operate in perpetuity. Acquisition spends all of the revenues that it receives.

"The county has closed on all board-approved contracts except for one, the Argo Ranch (more than 1,700 acres). Argo Ranch is next to Babcock Ranch and is scheduled to close Jan. 31 at a purchase price of $23.9 million. That will leave an estimated $3 million in the budget.

"As remaining property taxes are paid in 2009, an additional $12 million to $15 million are expected to be received. We have 14 properties on hold for board prioritization and approval. The highest-ranked parcel is north of the Six Mile Cypress Slough and far exceeds all anticipated revenue for 2009. At most, we would be able to only acquire a portion of the property.

"Like every other government program, we will see a sharp decline in funds because the funding is tied directly to the value of properties. So, for example, if overall housing values are reduced by 50 percent (just a rough estimate), then the funding is reduced by the same amount. Unfortunately, we have never been in a better position to buy land at great prices, so our ability to grab up lands is limited."

Ms. Sulecki: "We have .25 (approximately) mils (a property tax rate of approximately $25 for each $100,000 in property value) coming in from ad valorem taxes. I say approximately because the recent tax rollback reduced a portion of the levy to under .20 mils, while the debt-service portion remains at .25 mils. Our current rough projections give us approximately $28 million coming in for land acquisition through the remaining levy period — now through 2013. That works out to be just under $7 million each year. This number can change as it is based on projections of property values, which could be lower in reality."