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Conservancy Opposes Swap With Developer

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: February 4, 2009

ARIPEKA - The Gulf Coast Conservancy is mounting a campaign to block a land swap between state officials and the developers of the former Sun West mine property in Hudson.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District has proposed trading nearly 90 acres at the southwest corner of U.S. 19 and Aripeka Road to the developers of the Sun West property for two tracts totaling more than 1,200 acres.

The deal hinges on Pasco County and the state Department of Community Affairs approving the proposed SunWest Harbortowne project, which would include a marina linked to the Gulf of Mexico by a canal.

If the SunWest deal falls through, Swiftmud's proposal does, too, said Eric Sutton, the agency's land resource manager.

The district bought the 90-acre tract, known as the Wooley tract, in 2001 with the help of the state's Florida Forever program. That program allows for the kind of swap Swiftmud has proposed as long as the deal is a fair one, Sutton said.

The two other tracts in the swap lie west and south of the SunWest project and include nearly 900 acres of coastal land.

Environmentalists say the swap will endanger the handful of black bears that roam between Aripeka and the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Citrus County.

In a letter released this week, conservancy officials urge their members to oppose the swap.

"Conservation land swaps should only occur when there is a clear and very significant benefit to natural resource conservation," conservancy officials said their statement.

Aripeka's bears are one of two populations in Florida. In recent years, they have become increasingly isolated as development has encroached on their territory.

A study from 1997 to 2002 found about 20 bears living along the coast from northwest Pasco to Citrus County. A handful of those bears were found traveling through the Aripeka area at that time.

Sutton said his responsibility is to the broader environment, not strictly to the bears. The property the district hopes to get in the swap contains valuable coastal wetlands and hosts a variety of endangered species, including the Florida scrub jay.

"There are larger environmental gains here than if we didn't do this," Sutton said.

Swiftmud officials will take their proposal to the Coastal Rivers Basin Board meeting Feb. 12 for consideration before sending the proposal to the district's governing board less than two weeks later.

Swiftmud officials say the swap is justified because the Wooley tract will eventually be surrounded by development, making it harder to manage.

The swap also sets Swiftmud up to acquire a strip of land along the western boundary of a future county park proposed for coastal land just south of the SunWest project. That strip will link the two swapped properties to the thousands of acres the district already owns along the coast.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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