Cynthia Guerra, the executive director of the Monroe County Land Authority, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
It looks like the Florida legislature will extend the legislative session because of a budget impasse.
Guerra said, “The Florida Forever program has been the state’s premier land acquisition program for many, many years now that focuses on conservation land acquisition. And there are Florida Forever projects in Monroe County, up and down the Florida Keys. And the state of Florida, through the Department of Environmental Protection has been a very important acquisition partner to the Monroe County Land authority. And every year we look to the governor and the legislature to provide adequate funding for the program across the state so that we can keep our programs very robust in terms of acquiring critical lands here in the Keys.”
What acquisitions did the program make possible?
Guerra said, “In the Florida Keys, for instance, a lot of our project areas are located in places that you would expect, like on Big Pine Key, where there’s very sensitive habitat for lots of listed species, or in northern Key Largo, but there are actually Florida Forever, projects that cover most of the Keys and captures lands that don’t seem that significant, that really are plotted residential lots. There are thousands of them in the Keys that are still vacant. It’s always been a focus of ours to try to acquire those, to reduce the development pressure on them. One of the ways that our relationship with the state of Florida has evolved over the years is that they used to do buying independently here in the Keys, but then we started to assist them by buying land first and then selling it back to the state of Florida. And last year, we were able to convey 191 parcels to the state that were just for conservation under the Florida Forever Program. Often we would get full reimbursement on these pre acquired parcels that we would resell to the state. The resales were pretty robust last year, even though last year’s fiscal budget for Florida Forever had been cut tremendously from over $300 million to $18 million and right now, we’re looking to the legislature, and we’re hoping that people are talking to their representatives across the state, because while the governor had proposed a very robust, $115 million to fund Florida Forever in the coming fiscal year that starts on July 1, the House has $0 in their proposed budget, or at least the last time I checked, and that’s going to hurt the conservation land acquisition effort across the state of Florida, but especially here in the Keys, because if they’re not available to help us increase our own efforts, then we just have to tread water and hope that they get funded in the future. So right now, we’re just kind of watching the legislature very closely and hoping that they can do better to get Florida Forever some money in the coming fiscal year. That starts for the state on July 1.”
Sometimes land is acquired to help with affordable housing.
Guerra said, “Last year, we focused on some really large, multi family projects with some particular partners, like the Key West and Monroe County Housing Authorities, one of our quieter but very successful programs is that we work to support the local Habitat for Humanity chapters by buying parcels that they can develop for single family, residential, affordable housing. And that’s been a really successful model for us up and down the Keys. We’re going to be focusing on that continuing into the coming fiscal county fiscal year. Most of our dedicated funding is from bed taxes here in the Keys and also through a surcharge on Florida State Parks. If you go to a state park in Monroe County, you pay an extra dollar, I think it is per car, and that’s dedicated funding that is used to enhance our land conservation efforts.”
What will happen if the state doesn’t get behind the acquisition of conservation lands in the Florida Forever program?
Guerra said, “Even though this past year, Florida Forever was not adequately funded, we did not stop, and we’re still buying land at a rate that is consistent with the last few years, and we’ll continue to do that. It’s just really a good benefit for the county effort if we can turn around and resell our land to the state, because then we recover funds to buy more land.”
Does the fact that the Keys are an area of critical state concern play into this at all?
Guerra said, “That’s the whole basis for why the land authority exists. When the state adopted those areas of critical concern, the county had to make modifications to their comprehensive plans for growth to accommodate those rules, and that’s when there was a real focus on land acquisition, because if we’re going to restrict development, we have to provide people with an alternative to development, and land acquisition is one of those alternatives.”
If anyone is interested in having a discussion about possibly selling their land, or providing their land for the land authority, how would they go about that?
Guerra said, “All they need to do is call our office. Our phone number is 305-295-5180, and if you go to our county’s web page, you will find a link for the land authority under the department’s tab.”