To Preserve And Protect: Land Program Up For Renewal

With land prices tanking, environmentalists say now is the time to pounce on a depressed real estate market to preserve thousands more acres for wildlife, water protection and quality of life.

Before Hillsborough County can make such a move, though, voters must approve an extension of the county's land-preservation program, which expires in 2010.

Extending the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program would infuse enough money into the fund to purchase and preserve about 20,000 more acres.

Voters going to the polls Nov. 4 will find an initiative at the bottom of their ballots asking them to extend a special tax to support the program. The tax would allow the county to acquire $200 million in bond financing over the next 20 to 30 years to procure new lands.

The levy would cost a property owner in Hillsborough County 25 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value. For the owner of a $225,000 house with a $50,000 homestead exemption, that's about $44 a year.

Although no serious opposition to the measure has emerged, the question about whether to extend the tax for decades comes at a precarious time.

Taxpayers approved an amendment to the state's constitution in January that promised relief, including doubling the homestead exemption. As a result, local governments eliminated positions, laid off employees and curtailed services. Florida's unemployment rate has grown to exceed the national average, and the number of foreclosure actions here has become the second-highest in the country.

Still, voters overwhelmingly approved the tax the last time it was on the ballot in 1990 - even though the savings and loan crisis was roiling the economy, housing prices had plummeted and the unemployment rate was about the same as it is now.

"The word to emphasize is 'continue,'" said former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez, a Tampa native who has spearheaded environmental land preservation since the 1970s, including the state's Preservation 2000 initiative. "If you understand this is not a new tax, you're going to be for it."

Martinez and former County Commissioner Jan Platt are co-chairing the committee promoting the ballot issue.

"I think this is a critical time to continue this program," said Platt, who led the effort to develop the program in 1987.

The county has sizable parcels of environmentally sensitive lands that, unless bought and preserved, are slated for development, Platt said.

"Today, it's a new ballgame because of the economy," she said. "An upside to the down economy is that this program is a win-win for the landowners and the taxpayers."

County Commissioner Al Higginbotham said he is concerned the initiative is coming at a bad time for taxpayers.

"I'm going to vote for it and support it, but I am concerned with it being on this November ballot" in light of the sinking economy, he said.

Despite the slump, Martinez said he hasn't gotten significant push-back from voters.

"ELAPP has been very successful over the last 20 years, and if we don't buy more land to preserve now, we won't have the green space or good recharge areas for our aquifers," Martinez said.

In its 21 years, the fund has preserved 51 sites, or 44,700 acres. By partnering with state and federal agencies such as the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the county has been able to stretch local dollars further, offsetting the cost to county taxpayers.

The money goes to buy land that connects wildlife corridors, protects water-recharge areas and rare habitat, and preserves coastal wetlands that cleanse polluted stormwater before it flows into local rivers and Tampa Bay. The preserved lands also provide roaming and feeding grounds for wildlife.

Realistically, a new $200 million bond issue would be enough to purchase the best 15,000 to 20,000 acres of the 44,000 acres remaining on the list, said Forest Turbiville, manager of regional park services for the county.

The program purchases from willing sellers only.

When real estate prices skyrocketed a few years ago, the staff was hard-pressed to find willing sellers, said Pete Fowler, manager of resource development for the program. Not so today. There is more land available than buyers, he said.

Martinez, Platt, program committee Chairwoman Jan Smith and others have been drumming up support.

Other major support comes from area municipalities, from Audubon of Florida, the Tampa Bay Conservancy, the Florida Communities Trust and the Trust for Public Lands.

"Part of our mission is conserving lands for people," said Will Abberger, director of conservation for the Trust for Public Lands in Tallahassee. "We're very involved in a number of local ballot initiatives, and we believe people are still willing to dedicate funds for land conservation."