Collier County has been eyeing the purchase of nearly 2,250 acres near Lake Trafford in Immokalee.
The county could use the property to provide everything from new workforce housing and parks to improved stormwater management and fire operations to the rural town, with parts of the land set aside for conservation, protecting it from development forever.
The price, however, could be a sticking point.
On Tuesday, a majority of county commissioners balked at the asking price of $23 million. The price came in higher than the average 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.
Commissioners directed county staff to go back to the negotiating table, with an offer of $20.77 million, the average of the two numbers it received.
With reluctance, Commissioner Bill McDaniel, whose district includes Immokalee, voted with the rest of the board to seek the better offer.
He warned it could quash the deal.
"I think we are making a motion for failure," McDaniel said. "I will support you if you want to go down that road."
The purchase agreement signed by the sellers included a right to rescind it, if the county offered a price of less than $23 million.
While a broker for the sellers attended the hearing, he could not say whether they'd be willing to take less.
A majority of commissioners were willing to risk it, saying they wanted to follow a county policy of not paying more than the appraisals it receives for property.
For the county to pay more, a supermajority vote of four out of five commissioners is required.
Board stands firm on price
Commissioner Rick LoCastro said the county isn't quibbling over nickels and dimes, but millions of dollars. He insisted the county should not pay a penny more than the average appraisal price, making the best use of taxpayer money.
In fact, he said, the commission has been encouraging county staff to negotiate less than the appraisal value, when possible.
He suggested the sellers pulled the higher price out of their hats, without explanation. Other commissioners saw it the same way.
Commissioner Burt Saunders said he didn't know where the $23 million offer came from "other than from thin air."
McDaniel defended the sellers, saying the appraisals received by the county are from a government perspective, not necessarily from a market perspective.
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While it's no longer listed for sale on LoopNet, the property had been advertised as having "all the ingredients to become the next large-scale master planned development, such as Babcock Ranch," located in neighboring Lee County, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Several commissioners, however, questioned how much interest it might have from private developers.
A majority of commissioners also took issue with the fact that the sellers had not provided more information from environmental inspections yet, which may reveal problems that could be expensive to address, costing the county more money, if cleanup is required.
In response, commissioner McDaniel said it wouldn't benefit the sellers to provide the information in advance, while in negotiations with the county, as it would become public knowledge, which could impact the ability to attract another buyer, if the deal falls apart.
LoCastro didn't like that answer.
"We're not the seller. We're the buyer. So, I want it to be beneficial for us," he said.
County staff has warned there could be contamination from the agricultural uses and the septic tank on the property. The land has been used to grow fruits and vegetables, produce hay and raise cattle for decades, with active leases for farming still on it.
McDaniel pointed out that if the county acquired the land it would benefit from the leases, which produce revenue of $300,000 annually, and could be transferred over to the county.
The county, he said, could also 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.
Half of the property 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 targeted for conservation is about 1,170 acres.
Board makes counteroffer
Commission chairman Chris Hall made the motion to have county staff bring the lower offer back to the sellers. It was seconded by Saunders, and unanimously approved.
The motion included requiring the sellers share their environmental studies within three days.
With their vote, commissioners emphasized they wished to assume the agricultural leases and expressed their willingness to grant naming rights.
The contract would give the county the right to its own inspection, and to get out of the agreement if significant contamination is found, without penalty.
Should the county decide to break the agreement for any reason that's not outlined in the contract, it would have to pay damages of $70,000 to the sellers.
The sellers requested that if a conservation park is established on the land, it be named the James E. Williams Jr. Preserve, or something similar. In the 1950s, he founded Williams Farms in Immokalee, which has been passed through the generations.
As part of their motion, commissioners also asked for a modification to the agreement to automatically extend the county's time to complete its investigation into the property by 90 days, if it doesn't happen within six months of the board's approval, as requested by the sellers.
The county would purchase the land with money from multiple sources, including funds from Conservation Collier, a taxpayer-funded land-buying program. Other money would come from budgets for parks and recreation and housing, and funds for affordable housing generated by a one-cent infrastructure tax, which has since expired.
If the county buys the property, it will have to amend its growth management plan to allow residential and commercial development, as well as government uses, on it.
The property would also require a rezoning to a public use district for government uses, including parks and fire services.
The Immokalee Fire Rescue District's chief has expressed interest in locating a fire station on the property.
The purchase of the land will provide "all kinds of wonderful things for Immokalee proper," McDaniel said, from much-desired parks to much-needed road improvements that could help with hurricane evacuations.
Land purchase warrants caution
Brad Cornell, policy director for both Audubon Western Everglades and Audubon Florida, told commissioners the purchase is "no small effort," and has "a lot of facets to it."
The environmental groups, he said, are in favor of the purchase, for the protection of wetlands and wildlife, including the endangered Florida panther, which has been spotted there.
He emphasized the importance of getting the environmental reports from the sellers, however, to know the conditions of the property, so the county won't face "some sort of unfair liability," or unexpected conflict.
If the county uses money from the Conservation Collier program to purchase parts of the land that are not put into conservation, it should be reimbursed, he said.
Daniel Zegarac, a county resident, echoed Cornell's concerns. He said the county should be cautious in buying property that can't produce the long-term revenue to support the expense of it.
"Our debt has grown substantially over the last couple years," he said.
He agreed the county should not pay the sellers' asking price, as it seemed arbitrary, and that the sellers should have been more forthcoming with the results of its environmental inspections.
"You should know a lot more about this land," Zegarac said.
After facing unexpected environmental issues after the county's purchase of the former Golden Gate Golf course for affordable housing and government uses, Hall and other commissioners said they'd learned their lesson.
"Moving into this, we are thinking a lot better," he said.
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