Volusia Forever
has preserved 30,000 acres, but the race is on with land speculators
Back
in the gold rush days of the old west it was a great race to see who
could stake a claim first. That's a good way to look at the
situation faced by advocates of the county's citizen-approved
Volusia Forever endangered land acquisition program.
Managers
of the program find themselves in a race with land speculators, who,
armed with boatloads of cash, are buying large tracts of valuable
green space almost as fast as the government can print greenbacks.
"Our
biggest challenge is making substantial purchases amid a rapidly
escalating real estate market," said Doug Weaver, Volusia County's
Land Acquisition and Management Director. "We're in competition with
the real property investor."
Approved
by voters in 2000, the county's land acquisition program targets
environmentally sensitive, water resource protection and outdoor
recreation lands that can be acquired from willing sellers and
preserved, managed and made available for limited public use. The
program is funded by an annual property tax levy of 20 cents per
$1,000 in taxable property valuation. The program is expected to
generate $162 million through its expiration in 2021.
Since
its inception, the program has participated in the preservation of
about 30,000 acres. The county has spent $14.1 million, combined
with a $24 million expenditure by preservation partners in a variety
of land deals.
The
Volusia County Council's major goal is to preserve the 55,000 acres
in the center of the county known as the Flagler-Volusia
Conservation Corridor. So far, about half of the corridor in Volusia
County is in public hands, Weaver said.
Weaver
said he and his staff face an "ever-changing" real estate market
with land speculators willing to pay well above market value for
large chunks of acreage. Land values have shot up three or four
times since the land acquisition program was created. Although each
parcel is unique in character and value, the first land purchase
through the Volusia Forever program was acquired at $1,360 per acre.
The price of the most recent acquisition was $7,200 per acre.
In
a move to counter the rapidly increasing value of green space, the
County Council advanced $40 million from a bond issue to make money
available now for big purchases. Immediately after the bond proceeds
were in hand, the county earmarked $11.8 million to acquire 1,644
acres on Pioneer Trail, west of New Smyrna Beach, known as the
Lunsford tract. Weaver said the hefty price tag is indicative of
today's market conditions. "Our major focus is to get large parcels
in the corridor, but we're running out of big parcels. I don't see
the pace of acquisition continuing at the pace we've had."
The
Volusia Forever inventory soon could grow by 1,317 acres if a deal
can be completed with Progress Energy for property that abuts Lake
George State Forest in northwest Volusia. The county also may be
given 2,000 acres now owned by the state.
The
money in hand from the bond issue gives Volusia County the
wherewithal to make deals quickly, later getting part of the
acquisition cost back from land acquisition partners such as the
state or water management district, which may not be able to react
as fast as the county.
Weaver
pointed out that in slightly more than half of the Volusia Forever
deals, the property was preserved for the public through
conservation easements. In these cases, the property owner retains
ownership and the right to limited use of the property, with intense
development prohibited.
While
considerable effort is focused on property preservation, Weaver
pointed out that much attention is focused on ways to make these
public lands available for public use. His division is working to
open trails, install pavilions and provide other public amenities
and has employed a fulltime naturalist whose wide variety of
activities have been attended by more than 3,000 residents.
