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State okays historic land deal

The 74,000 acres of Babcock Ranch will be the final link in a corridor of preserved lands from Lake Okeechobee to Charlotte Harbor.

By JONI JAMES
Published November 23, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Hoping to preserve a swath of wilderness in fast-growing Southwest Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet unanimously agreed Tuesday that the state should spend $350-million over the next five years to purchase most of a ranch the size of Rhode Island.

The state's deal to buy 74,000 acres, or three-fourths, of Babcock Ranch from a Palm Beach developer is still contingent on negotiations between the developer and Lee and Charlotte counties over plans to build a city of 50,000 on the remaining 18,000 acres.

But Tuesday's vote definitely marked a milestone in the plan, considered the most complex and largest in state conservation efforts.

It comes after years of negotiations, including the state's failed bid last year to purchase the entire property outright from 43 shareholders, all heirs of patriarch Fred Babcock, who died in 1997. The family has worked and controlled the property since 1918.

"The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer an oncoming train," a beaming Sydney Kitson, the developer, told reporters. The vote came two weeks after environmentalists' concerns over water rights prompted the Cabinet to request further negotiations.

Bush said Tuesday's vote ensures water rights will remain in the public domain and under the state's control.

The governor and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher also said they will push state lawmakers to address a final concern of environmentalists: that most of the money the state is expected to use to buy Babcock will come at the expense of other land conservation efforts.

The deal anticipates lawmakers' agreeing to spend $200-million from the state's Florida Forever land-buying fund, $10-million from the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, $100-million from general state revenue and $40-million from Lee County.

Florida Forever, which ends in 2009, has just $1.2-billion left at its disposal.

Bush and Gallagher said they will push state lawmakers to spend $350-million in general revenue in 2006-07, when the state is expecting an influx of new cash, to pay the bill all at once. That would leave Florida Forever funds available for other lands.

The ranch is a mixture of working farmland and wilderness areas. It is considered the final link in a 65-mile-long corridor of preserved land from Lake Okeechobee to Charlotte Harbor.

It includes Fisheating Creek and the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area. It also is home to black bears, panthers and wood storks, among other species.

The land includes Telegraph Swamp, which is considered vital to the state's $10-billion Everglades restoration project.

"Teddy Roosevelt would certainly be proud today," Attorney General Charlie Crist said, evoking the president credited with launching America's park system during his tenure from 1901 to 1909.

[Last modified November 23, 2005, 00:43:03]