By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County commissioners Monday on a 3-2 vote agreed to acquire for the county's land conservation program 370 acres in the Tohoqua development for $9.2 million, $500,000 more than what staff recommended.

The property is on the eastern shore of Lake Tohopekaliga and owned by Orlando-based Neptune Road Investments. The site, also referred to as the Legacy Park area, was once part of the Partin Ranch and at one time was owned by the Seminole indian tribe. It also is now part of the development of regional impact, or DRI, of the same name.

The Tohoqua DRI is south of Neptune Road, west of the Florida’s Turnpike, west of the C-31 canal, north of Goblet’s Cove on Lake Tohopekaliga and east of Macy Island Road.

Staff previously had recommended the county terminate the land purchase because a wetlands survey for the property had not been provided by the landowner on time. However, a survey was recently completed by engineering firm PBS&J, with 159.5 acres determined to be wetlands, compared to 30 originally, the reason for the staff recommendation on the price reduction.

Commissioners Ken Smith, Brandon Arrington and John Quiñones voted for the purchase, while Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. and Commissioner Michael Harford were opposed.

Smith said the county should look at the Tohoqua property and “see its potential.”

“This piece of property fits what we are trying to do … to protect our lake … and provide passive recreation,” Smith said, recalling a time years ago when the county wanted to purchase 1,600 acres in the area but couldn’t afford to do so.

Quiñones said the Tohoqua site meets “the parameters” of the county land conservation program and the purchase price was what the appraiser under county contract said it was worth, and that there was “no reason not to move forward.”

Hawkins said he opposed buying the property because the uplands area of the property would have been preserved by the developer anyway in the Tohoqua DRI.

“There was more wetland than we thought; plus, the developer didn’t agree to the purchase price recommended by staff,” Hawkins said after the regular commission meeting. “I also don’t care to spend between $2 million and $4 million to make it usable to the public.”

Harford said he was worried that the large purchase would reduce the county’s ability in the future to buy smaller parcels of environmentally important land. He also echoed Hawkins’ worry that the county was buying property the developer would have had to protect anyway.

Mary Carr, chair of the county’s Land Conservation Advisory Board, before the vote clarified that the advisory board did not recommend the purchase of the Tohoqua site, but rather recommended that the county clarify certain issues. Among those issues were questions about how much of the site would have to be set aside anyway in the Tohoqua DRI, and whether other government entities, such as the city of St. Cloud and the Toho Water Authority, were interested in a joint purchase for the purpose of reclaimed water storage.

Carr said that if she had known earlier this year what she knows now about the site in terms of wetlands and that no other government entity would become a partner in the purchase, she would not have voted to move it to the County Commission for further review and fact-finding.

“If we purchase Tohoqua, we would spend $2.5 million to $3 million to bring it up to where we can have passive uses, and yet not have any picnic tables,” Carr said.

Jim McNeil, attorney for Neptune Road Investments, said before the vote that the owners disagreed with staff’s purchase price suggestion and were sticking to the $9.2 million.

The total number of single-family homes planned in the Tohoqua DRI will drop by 1,000 with the county’s purchase of the site. The developer now must submit an amended DRI, removing the 370 acres from the plan.

County staff now will continue work on a management plan for the site, with decisions still to be made on how much wetland area would be restored to its natural state or whether part of the site could be used as a regional wetlands mitigation area, with the county possibly selling wetlands credits to developers to help recover some of its costs to buy and maintain the property.

According to county staff, passive recreational uses of the Tohoqua site could include hiking, biking, kayaking/canoeing, fishing, picnicking or bird watching.

Funding for the land conservation program, often referred to as SAVE (Save And Value Environment), is generated by a property tax approved by voters in 2004. The county can levy up to a quarter of mill for the purchase of land for the program and subsequent maintenance needs.