Off-roaders may get their trails soon

The solution to Collier County’s off-roading problem could be 750 acres of old tomato fields, officials suggested Tuesday.

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Cassie Figga, 5, leans on her mother, Cheryl Figga, as she listens with others from the community during a Collier County Commission meeting on Tuesday. Figga said she and her family use swamp buggies and ATVs and want their riding grounds back. During the meeting, the commissioners agreed to give the South Florida Water Management district another 30 days to offer a piece of land suitable for off-road vehicle use.

The South Florida Water Management District formally offered the farmland to the county to make good on a land swap involving an Everglades restoration project.

“I am happily surprised by this suggestion,” said Wayne Jenkins of the Collier Sportsmen and Conservation Club. “It would make an ideal ATV track.”

County commissioners agreed Tuesday to give the water management district 30 days to work out the details to allow off-road vehicles onto the property. The commission had issued a 60-day ultimatum on April 11 for water managers to deliver the 640 acres it promised to the county in 2003.

According to the original deal, the land was supposed to be in the county’s hands by Oct. 1.

“I suspect there are a lot of people here ... who think the state hasn’t lived up to their obligation and they haven’t,” said Commissioner Fred Coyle, referring to the 50 off-roading enthusiasts who had come to protest the delay.

Water managers need to review recent environmental tests to confirm the land is safe for recreation and work out legal issues, said John Dunnuck, director of land management and operations for the district. The potential off-roading park is about a mile south of Sabal Palm Road, a few miles east of Collier Boulevard, in Belle Meade.

All-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and swamp buggies are no longer allowed in Southern Golden Gate Estates. The product of a land grab gone bust, the subdivision has hundreds of miles of gravel roads and piney woods that provided a near-ideal setting for weekend play.

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Trails for off-road vehicles weave their way through Big Cypress National Preserve on June 6. ORV users had been promised that the land would be available by October 2005.

A return of off-road vehicles to Southern Golden Gate Estates seems unlikely. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has rejected a proposal from the state Division of Forestry, which operates the 55,000 acres, that would have given visitors at least 12.3 miles of trails designated for riding.

According to the corps, off-road vehicle play is “inconsistent” with the goals of the $10.8 billion Everglades restoration project. In the coming months, water managers plan to begin tearing out roads and a handful of homes as part of an effort to get water flowing in a broad, slow-moving river toward Ten Thousand Islands.

The county had agreed to hand over those roads in exchange for at least 640 acres of land where people could frolic in the mud. Last year, county officials rejected the district’s offer of a 628-acre site near Lake Trafford, citing soil tests that revealed arsenic contamination in lake muck being placed on the property.

The 750-acre site has several drawbacks.

The state Department of Environmental Protection bought the acreage under a land preservation program that doesn’t allow land to be resold. The county could forge an agreement with the state or obtain a lease to use the property.

While the land is 750 acres, more than 100 acres bigger than necessary under the terms of the agreement, a mere 500 acres of it would be available to off-road vehicles. The southern 250 acres will be used as a buffer for the cropland to the south.

And the site adjoins Picayune Strand State Forest, the new name for Southern Golden Gate Estates and Belle Meade. The site could face a lengthy federal review for potential impacts to endangered Florida panthers and other protected wildlife.

Dunnuck said after the meeting he was unsure how long it would take to open the site to off-road vehicles. Water management district officials are slated to return to the commission chambers July 25 to flesh out their plans.

Commissioners Coyle and Jim Coletta appeared split over whether to get lawyers involved. Coyle said litigation would lead to further delays; Coletta said it may be the only way to reach a solution.

Off-roading enthusiasts, some dressed in cowboy boats and beat-up baseball caps, made clear that waiting is not an option.

“The one thing that can’t be given back is time,” said Rick Varela, an off-roading advocate, in his full-throated, three-minute address before the commission.