Program has more money but less land

When Lee County first started collecting the Conservation 2020 tax to buy critical environmental lands in 1997, estimates were the program might collect more than $100 million in the next decade.

The estimates were wrong.

The most recent cash flow statement shows the program, fueled by a property tax of 50 cents for every $1,000 of taxable value, has generated more than $159 million. That's with six months left before a full decade's collections.

"Of course, property values have gone up, too," said Roger Clark, a biologist for the county who made the original revenue projections back in 1996.

He's right. While the $159,566,887.29 is around 50 percent more than expected, taxable property values in Lee County have risen from $20.6 billion in 1995 to $88.8 billion this year.

Conservation 2020 deals only with willing sellers, meaning the owner must offer the property for consideration. The program has bought 66 pieces of property, totaling 11,810 acres, for $86.4 million.

Clark said the nominations are becoming fewer and fewer, however, and those that come in are more problematic.

"Nominations are down and land values are up," he said. "Things have become more complicated."

Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah, a supporter of the effort even before voters gave their blessing to the tax in 1996, said that's one reason the county and the Conservation 2020 committee should take pains not to quickly rule out any possible acquisitions, even if the land might not seem at first to meet all the criteria.

"There's no question that with the increased real estate values and the rapid conversion of raw land for development, every parcel, every tract of land made available needs to be seriously considered," Judah said.

Clark said that with the red hot and rapidly changing real estate market, the county needs to make efforts to expand the field of potential purchases.

"It's going to take more effort to get properties nominated," he said. "We bought a lot of what was available at first, and we got in kind of under the wire on the huge real estate bubble. Now there's not as much land to go around."

Other sets of eyes could help; for example, if local conservation groups would find owners with key properties they might be willing to sell.

"It would be good to have a third party looking for landowners," Judah said. "There needs to be an underlying strategy for linking. We've bought a lot of large parcels over the years. I think it would be good for someone to work with property owners to encourage submissions based on locations."

The program has not quite $33 million available for land purchases. Another $25 million has been set aside for the purchase of Babcock Ranch. There's also not quite $22 million available for land management.