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Pasco Countymeeting record

PRN-24-0052

Published agenda

Heard once, at the Board of County Commissioners on Feb 20, 2024.

OutcomeApproved by the Board of County Commissioners on Feb 20, 2024
Approved to put it back on the list by a roll call vote.

Official title

Removal of Properties from the Environmental Land Acquisition Selection Committee (ELASC) Nomination Pool – Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources Department – Environmental Lands Acquisition and Management Program (ELAMP) Requirements – No Funding Required

Every appearance1 of 1 are in a recording

TranscriptWhat was said at each appearance is below it. Machine transcription, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 91% of 68 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.

  1. 1
    Board of County CommissionersC34Consent agendaApproved
    Approved minutes

    Approved to put it back on the list by a roll call vote.

    Open this item →
    9m
    Ron OakleyChair

    Move to let's see. C eleven is withdrawn. C thirty-four discuss.

    Seth Weightman

    Thank you, Chairman Mariano. Okay. He's two for two. So C thirty four Uh there's two items on there, but one one item Keith can go a little bit more detail. At the corner of uh fifty two and forty one to the southwest corner Line the gas station, there's a there's a thousand plus acres, uh Old Florida farm. And we brought it forward, we worked through this all last year to bring it forward to the ELAMP board for consideration for uh

    potential acquisition 'cause it ties into the well fields. Um and it's, you know, tho a a nice thousand acre tract that just could tie in for so many benefit to the public and you know, water and preservation. But there's There's a couple of challenges with it and there's a there's a mitigation bank on there on a piece of it. But the what's the committee called, Keith?

    Keith

    It's the Environmental Land Selection Committee.

    Seth Weightman

    So the Environmental Land Selection Committee voted, they think the land is probably protected. They voted not to add it to the list. I disrespectfully disagree with their decision and this is no cost to the county. But we think to the future on preserving tracts of land unless this Uh farm is on the list. The county can't even have discussions. about potentially acquiring it or finding a way to find a to make a public benefit

    out of it. So I'm hoping the board will uh consider adding it to Uh the E Lamp list, there's no charge, there's no fee, it costs us nothing. But once it's on that list, it just gives the county the ability uh moving forward if there's an interest in finding a way to purchase that land for public benefit. uh that the opportunity is there. I just don't want to be I just don't I I I want to be careful because pieces of land are disappearing and just to have the option

    there I think would would be good. So Keith, you have any questions.

    Keith

    So it is it's at the corner of fifty two and forty one um on the uh east side. Southeast or southeast side, yes.

    Ron OakleyChair

    Oh southeast. I probably said southwest while ago.

    Kathryn Starkey

    That's the Tibbets property?

    Keith

    No. It's on the other side.

    Ron OakleyChair

    I was thinking that was part of Swift. Yeah, I thought that was Connerton

    Keith

    preserve. Yeah. Well it it was it was a part of that original development, yes. And then

    Kathryn Starkey

    Well it's already a preserve, isn't it? The

    Keith

    jail is here.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Can you pull that up?

    Ron OakleyChair

    The property owner? Who is that? Conerton?

    Keith

    So there's there's a principal owner group and then it also is actually owned uh and operated as as an active uh wetland wetland mitigation bank currently.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Is that not the Connor Preserve?

    Keith

    No, that is not the Connor Preserve. So Connor Preserve is further east. It's further to the east. Yeah.

    Kathryn Starkey

    No, I can't this is kinda preserved over here. Oh crazy.

    Ron OakleyChair

    This whole corner. No.

    Which way am I looking?

    Kathryn Starkey

    I always thought that was the perceived.

    Ron OakleyChair

    I'm looking to the east. Here if we have a

    Keith

    so this is basically Commissioner Starkey, this if you could see that this is the Connor Preserve here. So that's the existing water management district property. Right. The subject in question is

    Kathryn Starkey

    I wanted the ribbon cutting of that. I always thought that was all the way across.

    That was when Weatherford was in the hospital.

    Keith

    Anyway, the yeah, the different different property that you're talking about. But the the the one that we're that's on the list today is uh again south of fifty-two and right next to forty-one.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Okay, and I missed it. It's not on the list. Did the owners

    Keith

    put it on? No, yeah. So the process is it was nominated, the environmental land selection committee because of the conservation easement that's required through the bank basically recommended not

    Uh I think with Commissioner Weightman's referencing and he described the process very well. Once once the board so that's the the required process is that we present the recommendations to the BCC for them for them to ultimately uh approve the action. But once it's on the denied list, staff cannot ano we can't we can't negotiate any further. We can't explore options on what could or couldn't happen. Uh we've never actually pursued uh a bank like this before, but once it's actually denied, then we don't have the authority to even negotiate with the uh agent

    for the property. So I should say there's no obligation either on either side uh through this action.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Can there be trails on there?

    Keith

    Yes. So that's that would that's that's

    Kathryn Starkey

    part

    Keith

    of the discussion, correct, yes.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Okay, well I move to put it back on the list.

    Jack Mariano

    A little more discussion.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Go ahead.

    Jack Mariano

    Um Keith, if there's a wetland mitigation bank, that means the property's gonna be protected. Right? Yes. Correct. It's never going to be developed.

    Kathryn Starkey

    Well that'll be reflected in the value of the purchase. Why don't we need

    Jack Mariano

    to buy it if it's already protected? That's to my next point. Why do I want to spend money when I don't need to if I got the land protected? The whole thing is about protecting land. This is going to keep if we buy this land, I can't go buy other land.

    Kathryn Starkey

    But the price could be very little.

    Mike Carballa

    So that was the point I was gonna make is the price could be different. Yeah. And so but right now we can't even have those negotiations. So I think what what the commissioner's asking is is let's let's include it on the list, let's have some talks. We're not committing to purchase anything at this point in time.

    Unidentified speakerVoice A

    Right.

    Mike Carballa

    But we can't have the negotiations or the discussions on it to see if there's other things or price points that could be different. Unless it's on the list.

    It's the way the process is structured.

    Jack Mariano

    I understand, but I mean j just logically, do I want to go down that road? The the other thing is if you have a wetland mitigation bank, that means somebody who's trying to do some development if you have to have local mitigation This bank's already established. I don't know how many acres there are left, but Well that we want to really take that out of an option for somebody else coming around.

    Keith

    And I and that's kind of devils in the details, Commissioner. So I don't think that we're in the exploration, I don't think we could even actually decommission the bank. So you wouldn't close that down as a as an option for for other development projects to use it as a bank. I think quite honestly, um And I gotta be careful because again, we're at this point in time without having the authority uh from the board, we haven't entered into serious negotiations because because the process we can't. But as an example, uh a possible outcome could be we could explore public use, which currently

    right now in the thousand acres you have zero. So that's just a an option to consider. And I think Commissioner Starkey referenced. When you have something heavily encumbered like that, it would reflect, it would clearly be reflected in the actual c the final cost as well.

    Unidentified speakerVoice B

    So you

    Keith

    also would be picking up the liability

    Unidentified speakerVoice B

    of the bank. That is also true maintenance.

    Jack Mariano

    Kent Grove we have property up over there and there's an access to a park that's right there. The road is in such deplorable condition they can't get to it. So that'll be one of my ask coming up later on today hopefully or if I give you time to look at it before I next bring it up next meeting. But so I

    mean

    we gotta we gotta still take care of what we've got, but if I've got again a protected resource that's there. Um I'm gonna be very wary of it. this value to the mitigation bank. I'll put the other coin If we can become the mitigation bank. and make money on the other end of it, that could be something to look at. So for that I'll support taking a look at it further, but again I don't want to spend money, that's not gonna

    Seth Weightman

    Yes. Commissioner Weightman that's not the intent here. This is just Put it on the list. And the opportunity may or may not be there for future generations boards, what you're talking about, what have you. So Just to No harm and I thought to to get it on the list, to take a look at, um and uh it's it's there. Be being a Boy Scout, if you will.

    Ron OakleyChair

    Yeah.

    So putting it on a list of Binders in any way. So Yeah, 'cause there's a lot of particulars if you buy a property that's that's got this kind of bank in it, responsibility you have for it in the future and How much is actually how much is left to be Purchased or whatever for a bank. So it'd be good to know all those things. So correct. Yeah. Okay. I had a motion, was there a second? Got a motion? Happily second. Okay. Uh my roll call

    vote.

    Unidentified speakerVoice C

    District two, Commissioner Weightman. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Bradford.

    Kathryn Starkey

    All

    Ron OakleyChair

    right.

    Unidentified speakerVoice C

    District 5, Commissioner Mariano.

    Ron OakleyChair

    Aye.

    Unidentified speakerVoice C

    District 1, Chairman Oakley.

    Ron OakleyChair

    Aye. Motion passed 5-0. Thank you, board members. Okay. Uh that's the last item I have on on the list. So that will end the consent items. We'll move on to