Indian River County borrows $25 million from residents to purchase conservation lands

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The county has greenlit spending $25 million to buy and protect environmentally sensitive lands.

It costs the owner of a $300,000 home $19.56 per year, and is slated to be paid back by 2044, according to county Budget Director Kristin Daniels.

"Each purchase is in the name of conservation of water, wetlands, coastlines, endangered or threatened animals, endangered or threated plants, forests and endangered or threatened natural communities," said county Conservation Lands Program Manager Wendy Swindell.

Step-by-step process

Voters approved borrowing a total of $50 million in 2022 referendum. The money must be used to buy and protect land, especially along the lagoon.

"It's important to make sure that we are able to protect our wildlife corridors, waterways, water recharge areas, green places and open spaces," said Indian River Land Trust Executive Director Ken Grudens. "The county needs the funds to do that, which the 2022 referendum gave the ability to do."

Similar referendums occurred in 1992 and 2004. The 2022 referendum passed with 78% of the vote.

It must follow a step-by-step process to acquire lands. First, the land is nominated on the Environmental Lands Acquisition Program website. The nine-member environmental lands acquisition panel reviews each parcel and decides which to prioritize and recommend buying. Then, management plans and purchase option contracts are negotiated and, finally, a report is submitted to the County Commission for approval. If approved, the lands are bought and managed.

The county has three years to spend each half of the $50 million loan.

"We took the approach to split the money in half and give us a total of up tp six-years to spend all the money," said Swindell. "We felt this helped avoid the possibility of getting put in a bad position."

First round of submissions for protection opened in April, and is expected to run through September. Then, ELAP will review the submissions and rank them by importance and begin the purchasing process. Once complete, the process starts anew.

"We have a duty to our voters to get this done," said Daniels. "These aren't just any lands we're purchasing, these are important to the environment and especially our lagoon."

Each parcel gets a separate management plan.

"Even before purchasing the lands, we try and figure out the best course of action for each individual submission and how to best protect them," said Swindell. "We are very good at this, the county has done this twice before."

Land submissions can be made online at the county website.

"We are hoping to get a flood of submissions," said Swindell. "The more we get, the more we can protect our county's most precious and beautiful landscapes as well as the lagoon."

Nick Slater is TCPalm's Indian River County Watchdog reporter. You can reach him at Nick.Slater@tcpalm.com and 224-830-2875.