After a price adjustment, Collier County will move ahead with the purchase of nearly 2,250 acres near Lake Trafford in Immokalee.
On Tuesday, county commissioners unanimously agreed to pay $20.77 million for the land.
The decision came after the sellers accepted a lesser offer, saving a few million dollars of taxpayer money.
At a board meeting a few weeks ago, a majority of commissioners balked at the original ask of $23 million, saying they weren’t willing to pay a penny more than the valuation by two independent county-hired appraisers.
One of the appraisers valued the property at $19.94 million, while the other put it at $21.6 million. The county counteroffered with the average of the two numbers, and the sellers acquiesced.
The county could use the expansive property to provide everything from new workforce housing and parks to improved stormwater management and fire operations to the rural town of Immokalee, with parts of the land set aside for conservation, protecting it from development forever. The exact uses are still to be determined – and funded.
“Manny” Touron, president of the Immokalee Soccer Pit Cobras, a competitive youth soccer program in the town, urged commissioners to approve the agreement, saying the land is needed for recreation and more importantly for affordable housing.
“Immokalee is in need of your attention,” he said.
Previously: Collier commissioners reject purchase price for land in Immokalee, offer less
When the board sent county staff back to the negotiating table a few weeks ago, Commissioner Bill McDaniel warned it could quash the deal. He was pleasantly surprised to see the sellers come down on the price.
“Hooray for this,” he said. “This is an amazing opportunity for our constituents to take advantage of.”
He swiftly made a motion to approve the agreement. Commissioner Rick LoCastro seconded, without hesitation.
Before the vote, Commissioner Burt Saunders sought clarification, however, including whether the contract could still be cancelled if serious environmental problems are uncovered on the property, including from a former landfill, east of the property, which isn’t lined or capped.
Unlined sites are a concern because they allow leachate, a liquid formed by decomposing waste, to soak into and contaminate the soil and ground water.
County attorney Jeffrey Klatzkow confirmed the old landfill is not part of the county’s purchase agreement and that the county still has an out if it’s not happy with the results of any environmental studies, which are ongoing by the sellers.
The contract gives the county the right to its own inspection, and to get out of the agreement if significant contamination is found, without penalty.
More like this: County commissioners tweak Conservation Collier, millions in acquisitions on the horizon
Chairman Chris Hall commented that the county was “very well poised” with the agreement, allowing it to look at everything it wants to over the next six months and to cancel the deal, or even to potentially adjust the acreage of it, if the board “can’t live with something.”
Ed Finn, a deputy county manager, said the county is seen as a desirable buyer, so an adjustment to the acreage might not be out of the question, if warranted.
“We have cash, money,” he said. “And that is a good thing.”
Offering some assurance, McDaniel said he’d already seen some of the results coming in from the sellers’ environmental studies and they were “de minimis,” relating to the long-standing farming operations.
The land, owned by the Williams family, has been used to grow fruits and vegetables, produce hay and raise cattle for decades, with active leases for farming still on it.
As part of the agreement, if the county is unable to obtain the environmental and other information it seeks within six months through no fault of its own, it will receive an automatic 90-day extension.
The total cost of the purchase is estimated at $20.83 million, including $60,000 for a title commitment, title policy, closing costs, and official recordings. The sale involves a total of 12 parcels.
When the board discussed the contract at a board meeting May 14, McDaniel stressed that if the county acquired the land, it could take over the leases, which produce revenue of $300,000 annually.
Additionally, he pointed out the county could benefit from stewardship credits generated by preserving parts of the site, which could be sold as development rights. He estimated the value of one credit at $900 to $1,000, with the potential to generate thousands of credits.
After the favorable vote on the purchase agreement, McDaniel motioned to direct county staff to move forward as quickly as possible with the necessary growth plan amendments to generate the credits, as long as the environmental studies don’t spark any major concerns. Hall seconded, and the board unanimously agreed with the request.
Half of the property eyed for purchase sits in the Rural Land Stewardship, or RLSA, area. The county’s voluntary RLSA program allows developers to build more intense towns and villages on property with lower conservation value, in exchange for preserving more environmentally sensitive land, through a credit system. It’s designed to prevent urban sprawl, addressing state concerns about the protection of wildlife and wetlands dating back to the 1990s.
The amount of land on the Williams property targeted for conservation is about 1,170 acres.
At the next board meeting, Finn said he’d come back with an update on the environmental studies undertaken by the sellers.
Should the county decide to break the contract for any reason that’s not outlined in the agreement, it would have to pay damages of $70,000 to the sellers.
The county plans to purchase the land with money from multiple sources, including funds from Conservation Collier, a taxpayer-funded land-buying program. Other money could come from the budgets for parks and recreation and housing, as well as dedicated funds for affordable housing generated by a one-cent infrastructure tax in the county.
The exact funding mix has yet to be decided. More discussion is needed, Hall said, but that will come at a “later date.”
Even without a major hitch, a closing is not expected for at least six months.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: County commissioners agree to purchase Immokalee land for $20.77 million
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