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Biggest Florida land buy planned

The Cabinet will vote today on a plan to buy 74,000 acres for preservation. The cost: $350-million.

By CRAIG PITTMAN and JONI JAMES
Published November 22, 2005

Straddling the border between Charlotte and Lee counties is a slice of old Florida called Babcock Ranch. Cattle still roam its vast pastures, but the 91,000-acre ranch also is home to panthers, black bears and wood storks.

Today, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet are scheduled to vote on spending $350-million to buy three-fourths of Babcock Ranch from a Palm Beach developer. It would be the largest conservation land purchase in Florida history.

The state would own 74,000 acres of cypress domes and pine forests, about five times the size of Manhattan. State officials also will have to figure out how to keep the 75-employee ranch running, perhaps by setting up a nonprofit foundation.

Meanwhile the developer, Sydney Kitson, gets a green light to use the remaining 18,000 acres to build a new town with 19,500 homes and enough commercial space to equal to six malls miles from civilization, though he still would need local, state and federal permits.

The tradeoff isn't perfect, state officials say, but it's the best deal they can get.

"I've looked at it hard, and the orange is worth the squeeze in this case," said state Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples.

State and local officials have been trying for years to buy Babcock Ranch as the final link in a 65-mile-long corridor of preserved land from Lake Okeechobee to Charlotte Harbor that includes Fisheating Creek and the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area.

To acquire the ranch would mark a rare victory for environmental preservation in one of the fastest-developing areas of Florida.

The ranch, particularly the part known as Telegraph Swamp, is the largest parcel considered necessary to guarantee the $10-billion Everglades restoration project works.

Before the proposed Babcock Ranch purchase, the last big piece of land the state bought was a $20.4-million, 64,631-acre coastal parcel in the Big Bend region.

Babcock Ranch, known among cattlemen as the Crescent B Ranch, has been operated by the same family since 1918. Patriarch Fred Babcock was so proud of his stewardship of the land that he ran a side business called Babcock Wilderness Adventures so tourists could ride around the ranch and see what Florida used to look like.

But when he died in 1997, control of the ranch passed to more than 40 heirs, and they made it clear they were interested in selling to the right buyer.

State officials offered to buy the whole ranch for $455-million earlier this year. But Babcock's owners said no because selling would mean a hefty tax bill.

Instead, the family worked out a deal to sell their ranch to Kitson, a Palm Beach developer who will then sell part of the land to the state and use his profits from development to pay the taxes.

Kitson said the Babcock family had been "inundated with offers from around the world," but he won their approval "because of a shared vision. We were not the highest bidder ... and the path we've chosen is not the easiest path."

Kitson would have no guarantee of getting the permits he needs to build a town for 50,000 people. But he will get approval for boosting the potential density on the ranch and for clustering the development in the southwest corner of the property.

The deal has won some key votes this month. The governor and Cabinet approved the concept two weeks ago, the Lee County Commission approved spending money on the project and the Charlotte County Commission signed off on the concept Monday.

But some potential glitches could spoil the deal, including the way the state plans to pay for it: in five phases over the next four years.

The deal calls for spending $200-million from the Florida Forever fund for environmental land purchases, $10-million from the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, $100-million from the Legislature and $40-million from Lee County.

Environmental groups fear that taking so much money out of the $300-million-a-year Florida Forever will deplete the fund and make it nearly impossible to buy anything else in the state.

"It will basically gut Florida Forever," said Preston Robertson of the Florida Wildlife Federation.

But state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Colleen Castille said those concerns are misplaced. There is still $1.2-billion left in Florida Forever, she said, and by spreading the purchase out over four years there should be enough to cover Babcock as well other purchases.

Environmental groups are also concerned about relying on the Legislature, which has repeatedly raided Florida Forever for nonenvironmental projects, to remain enthusiastic about the Babcock buy through 2009. The Legislature would have to vote to buy Babcock land every year or the state could own isolated parts of the ranch and lose the rest, Robertson said.

Buying the whole thing at once, he said, would guarantee the ranch's preservation.

Two weeks ago, the governor and Cabinet nearly foundered on questions about whether Kitson could sell water under the property.

"That was a big no-no and we told him that," said Wayne Daltry, Lee County's "smart growth" director. "It took him a while to understand it."

The deal the Cabinet will vote on today ensures water rights will remain in the public domain and under the state's control.

State officials hope they will finally get their long-sought prize. They might not get another shot.

"It's unlikely we will ever have such a chance again," Castille said.

[Last modified November 22, 2005, 02:15:27]