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Tax increase proposed to preserve sensitive land

A suggestion to double a land-buying assessment is still in its infancy, but it receives a warm reception.

By DAN DeWITT
Published January 23, 2005

Len Tria, a Republican who works part time for three business groups, has offered what might seem an unusual proposal: a tax increase for environmental land acquisition and management.

Lower taxes "may be a party line, or the party line," Tria said. "But I think this just goes along with wanting to preserve the quality of life in the county, without being that obtrusive."

Tria, a member of the county's Environmentally Sensitive Lands Committee, has suggested doubling the county's current land-buying assessment, which is one-tenth of a mill. Not accounting for a homestead exemption, that comes to $10 annually for a house assessed at $100,000.

The proposal for an increase is still in the earliest of stages. Tria mentioned it at a meeting two weeks ago, and increasing the assessment would almost certainly require a voter referendum, possibly not until next year.

Still, the idea has quickly gathered steam.

Every member of the committee interviewed by the St. Petersburg Times supported the proposal, and some said it is overdue - an opinion shared by people familiar with similar programs across the state.

"Hernando has one of the teenier programs," said Jennifer Seney, a member of Pasco County's Environmental Lands Acquisition Committee.

Not only is Hernando's assessment lower than most other counties', the program has never issued bonds, which handicaps it in the race to keep up with climbing land prices, said Sue Mullins of the Nature Conservancy.

Adding to the urgency, the state is able to buy less natural land each year - a trend especially noticeable in booming areas such as Hernando County.

"Frequently, it's difficult for us to reach a negotiation in a white-hot real estate market," said Mark Glisson, staff director for the state's Acquisition and Restoration Council, which advises the governor and Cabinet on state lands.

"We're bound to pay no more than the appraised value. People are now selling at speculative values, and we can't compete with that."

Though members of the county land committee agree they need more money, they do not agree on how it should be spent.

Tria thinks most of the funds should be devoted to improving the county's previous purchases.

He and other committee members said the county has failed to control invasive plant species on its environmental lands, failed to burn land that needs burning and failed to make its natural areas available for boaters and hikers.

"We're spending the public's money. We have these tracts of land, and we ought to use the dollars to provide some sort of recreation, though it must be something that fits the property," Tria said.

As important as that is, said Gene Kelly, the committee chairman, the county should concentrate on buying land while it still can.

"Certainly we need to pay more attention to managing what we own and making those lands available. But I'm inclined to agree that the real pressure is to protect land while it's still available for protecting," he said.

The county has been doing little of that lately.

In the first few years after voters approved the assessment in 1988, the county bought several significant parcels, including the 322-acre Cypress Lakes tract in Ridge Manor, the 149-acre Fickett Hammock Preserve in central Hernando and a portion of the Weekiwachee Preserve, most of which was purchased by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

The county has bought far less natural land in the past decade.

Not all of it is due to a lack of money, said Dawn Velsor, the county's lead environmental planner.

In 1999, for example, it was poised to spend $1.4-million on 26 acres at Bayport. When Swiftmud bought the land instead, the county agreed to use its money to build park facilities there or at the Weekiwachee Preserve.

The park project at the preserve has since been postponed indefinitely; the one at Bayport has dragged on for years.

The county staff has also spent time studying and negotiating for other parcels that were later purchased by the state, Tria said.

But he and others agree the process could proceed far more quickly if the county issued bonds.

Mullins, the government affairs manager for the conservancy in Florida, said she knows of 28 counties with environmental land buying programs. Almost all of them have assesments more than twice as high as Hernando's, she said; "one-quarter mill is typical."

And 23 of those counties have issued bonds, which gives them a relatively large sum of money up front that can be used to purchase natural land before developers do - and before rising prices put it out of reach.

"You want to get ahead of the curve as far as the price of the property as well as the availability," Mullins said.

Hernando currently collects about $500,000 a year for the purpose of buying environmentally sensitive lands, Velsor said, and there is about $3.6-million sitting in the fund. Some possible future purchases include:

A bridge of undeveloped land between the Citrus and Croom tracts of the Withlacoochee State Forest. Estimated cost: $8-million.

A link between the Richloam and Croom tracts of the forest along the Little Withlacoochee River. Estimated cost: $14-million.

The floodplain around Peck Sink, near Wiscon Road. Estimated cost: $16-million.

The estimates are based on appraised prices, Velsor said, so the purchase prices would be substantially higher.

Even if the county stretches its funds by buying development rights rather than the land itself, Tria said, "obviously, we're not going to be able to (complete the projects) for a long time if we just exist on the $500,000. ... If the public approves it, we can do a bond issue. It does give you the money up front."

That money may be needed if the public wants to continue to protect undeveloped land. That's because the flow of state money for such purchases has slowed dramatically.

That is not to say it has dried up altogether, said Richard Hilsenbeck of the Nature Conservancy, who has planned or negotiated several public land purchases in the county.

For example, Hilsenbeck hopes the state will make another attempt to buy land that sits over a spectacular dry cave at World Woods Golf Club north of Brooksville.

"It's the same site we wanted six years ago. It's the same site we wanted six months ago," he said, though he added that he has not been directed to make another offer.

Also, Swiftmud has continued to buy portions of the Annutteliga Hammock in northwestern Hernando.

But because of increased land prices, that project has been scaled back from about 30,000 acres to 14,000, and it may be reduced further, Fritz Musselmann, Swiftmud's resources director, said recently.

And other than the hammock and the nearly completed purchase of land around the county's large springs, the state has no more plans to buy environmentally sensitive lands in Hernando, said Glisson, of the Acquisition and Restoration Council.

It almost certainly will not be adding any projects soon, he said, because of exploding land prices statewide and the stagnant pool of money available for environmental purchases.

The Florida Forever land-buying program and its predecessor, Preservation 2000, have generated $300-million per year since 1990.

Because the program is due to expire in 2010, and because the Acquisition and Restoration Council receives only a portion of its money, the council has about $500-million to spend on current projects that are valued at $4-billion.

"We are looking to focus only on the highest-quality projects, and that is happening statewide," Glisson said.

Discouraging as the increased price of land is, said Seney, it is important to remember that any delay in buying land will likely mean higher prices in the future.

Pasco voters recognized the need to continue preserving undeveloped land when they agreed to a sales tax increase partly for that purpose; the tax is expected to generate about $2.2-million annually for land preservation.

"As long as there's something left," Seney said, "there's hope for saving it."

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:13:14]