After Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent veto, Santa Rosa County commissioners have come up with their own plan to raise the $850,000 needed to purchase and protect 27 acres of sensitive Soundside property in Gulf Breeze.
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On Thursday, board members voted unanimously to buy the land with tourism dollars and money from a newly-created conservation fund.
Finding a way to get around the veto and preserve the land has been championed by Commissioner Colten Wright.
“This quite likely for me is probably the single-most important thing I’ve done in the last four years,” said Wright to applause from people in the audience.
Still reeling from the veto, he brought forth the idea of finding a quick solution to the funding issue on Monday, just three days before their regular meeting. In making his case, Wright said one of the most intriguing aspects is the contribution of $150,000 from the group, Save our Soundside, to help with the one million dollar purchase price.
“They paid for the appraisal cost. There’s a willing seller. The willing seller is going to sell it for less than what the property was appraised for,” he said. “And, the fact that private citizens were willing to say, ‘Hey, we’re willing to help pay for this, we just, we want to see this property protected.’”
Wright also pointed to the ecological value of conserving the sensitive wetlands and salt marsh.
“This is a very unique and sensitive area. And frankly, it’s one, you cannot be recreate it. If it was to go away, if it was to be mitigated and ‘fill and build,’ you can never recreate it,” he warned. “You can’t find another place on the water and try to recreate this type of salt marsh. And, it’s a perfect opportunity to have it designated as part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor.”
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But, Wright’s initial suggestion to use a half-million dollars of the county’s current conservation fund drew opposition from Commissioner Rhett Rowell, who reminded it was created, specifically, to preserve agricultural lands.
“I don’t want that $2 million over three years to go anywhere else, other than what it was promised to, and that is to farm conservation.”
Also, early in their discussion, Wright’s proposal to get the rest of the money needed from Tourist Development Council (TDC) dollars fell flat with Commissioner Ray Eddington. He was against any plan to divert funds from Navarre Beach projects in the works, including a boardwalk and parking garage.
“I’m all against taking this $300,000 right now,” Eddington said. “That would be a ‘no’ to me, because we’ve already promised this stuff we’ve got coming to that beach.”
As a compromise, commissioners discussed the possibility of a “carve out” from the TDC’s advertising budget.
Commission Chairman Kerry Smith supports the idea of shifting money meant to attract visitors to the already congested beach to expand tourism- to other areas of the county.
“We can’t keep pigeon-holing into four miles of beach,” Smith stated. “We have to get a little more expansive on this and get outside of this regular box that we’ve been in in Santa Rosa County, thinking that this is the only place we’re gonna get this tourism dollar.”
As operator of the Navarre Beach Pier, Tamara Fountain offered confirmation that Navarre Beach has passed critical mass and that people are in search of other tourism options.
“We want recreation,” she began. “We want hiking trails. We want biking trails. We want kayaking. We want canoeing.”
Fountain supports protection of the 27-acre Soundside parcel and suggested that there’s so much opportunity to marry recreation and conservation in Santa Rosa County.
“And I am so encouraged that we have a board that is talking about that sincerely.”
Another speaker, Daniel Smith, lives on Soundside Drive, just feet away from the property. The professional engineer called the parcel the keystone to water quality between the Navarre Beach and Bob Sykes bridges, and painted a bleak picture of what could happen if any development is approved there.
“As soon as that development is completed, you have lost the habitat for the mammals that live there now,” Smith warned. “The raccoons, the possums, the black bears, they’re gone on day zero of completion. Twenty-four months after that, the sediment and runoff that this property controls will see the complete elimination of grass beds between those two bridges.”
No grass beds, no fish, Smith continued. And, with no fish, he says habitat for ospreys, herons, and eagles will be lost.
For his part, Commissioner Bobby Burkett said the last thing he wanted was to see a developer come in and “fill and build” with a bunch of cookie-cutter houses. And, with the landowner getting multiple offers to sell, he said there’s no time to waste.
“This is not something that needs to be put on the back-burner because if it does, somebody in there is gonna come in there with a big checkbook and the man’s gonna take it and rightfully so,” Burkett advised. “But, he’s agreed to sell it to us...I think we ought to do it while we have the opportunity to do it.”
To get the $850,000 needed to complete purchase of the 27 acres, commissioners agreed to establish a new conservation fund that could be used to preserve any sensitive lands in the county — not just farmland — and earmark $500,000 specifically for the Soundside Conservation Project. Additionally, they agreed to take $350,000 from TDC funds to make up the difference. Whether the TDC money comes from the advertising budget will be hashed out at a future meeting.
