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Saving Sensitive Land Still A Goal

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 17, 2009

Pasco County officials say they will move forward with efforts to preserve environmentally valuable land now in private hands, despite the loss of help from the state's Florida Forever program.

The county's Environmental Lands Acquisition Selection Committee chose six properties Wednesday to study with an eye toward preserving them. The committee took those steps despite legislators' decision to freeze the $300 million state land preservation fund that has been critical to previous conservation purchases.

Legislators said freezing Florida Forever will save the state $20 million in loan repayments this year, part of their effort to come up with $2.6 billion to fill a hole in the state budget.

Florida Forever money paid half the cost of last year's $1.5 million purchase of land on the Upper Pithlachascotee River. The fund also reimbursed Pasco last year for half the cost of the $4.3 million Aripeka Heights property in the county's northwest corner.

County officials went to Tallahassee in 2008 to win Florida Forever's support for buying Crossbar Ranch in north-central Pasco. Pinellas County owns the property, which includes a well field, and threatened to sell it for development if it couldn't find another public owner.

It's unclear how the loss of Florida Forever funding will affect Pasco's purchase of the Crossbar property. Commissioner Ted Schrader said Thursday he remains convinced Pinellas officials will stick by their stated desire to keep the land in public hands.

"We haven't had any indication that that's not the way they want to go," Schrader said. "Until we hear different from Pinellas County, we're going to go forward."
Pinellas County may be willing to accept a payment plan for the property, Schrader said.

A state appraisal on Crossbar is due in February. In the meantime, the county will look for other sources of money to help seal the deal, Schrader said.

Aside from Florida Forever, Pasco's environmental lands program has its own budget - currently about $4 million - drawn from the Penny for Pasco sales tax. County officials hope to find other funding sources to take Forever Florida's place in stretching those dollars.

"We haven't stopped our activities at all," said Rene Weisner Brown, who directs the county's environmental lands program.

There's nothing to stop the county from making a list of potential purchases ahead of the day Florida Forever returns, she said.

The parcels reviewed this week totaled about 260 acres. Most of those acres are in north-central Pasco near Crossbar and the Masaryktown Canal. One parcel sits at the mouth of the Pithlachascotee River; another sits just north of State Road 54 on the west bank of Cypress Creek.

Earl Bartholomew, who owns the 2-acre tract on Cypress Creek, objected to having his land placed in the preservation corridor that straddles the creek. The property is surrounded by commercially zoned land.

Bartholomew said he envisions putting a restaurant and miniature golf course on the property to take advantage of the Cypress Creek Town Center complex planned for land across the creek and south of his property.

"It's an excellent piece of property for development, but y'all don't want it that way," Bartholomew told the committee.

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

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