Christine Hurley, Executive Director of the Monroe County Land Authority, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
In the past, the Monroe County Land Authority has purchased land from the state of Florida, but now the opposite is the case.
Hurley said, “About two years ago we developed a partnership with the state that was a little different than previous years where we go out and we buy conservation land, which is really our number one priority for acquisition. The good news now is we’re able to resell it to the state and get our money back. I know that seems a little bit weird maybe to people, but the more money we have, the more we can buy and with the ability to replenish our revenue, we’ve really, really been able to knock down some good purchases. We will have over $1 million in resales to the state of conservation land that we purchased. One of those is about a $600,000 reimbursement for over 20 acres of beautiful habitat along the bay. So that’s a milestone for us $1 million dollars in resales in one month is huge. We’re really, really excited about it because as we’ve talked before, the state in the Stewardship bill is willing to spend around $5 million a year and that’s a lot of properties to buy because what’s left to buy down here are the smaller parcels. So it takes a lot of time to negotiate and get those deals sealed.”
So the land will go back to the state?
Hurley confirmed, “It goes to them and it’s long term, set aside for forever. It’s called Florida Forever.”
The rumor that there would be 8,000 plots of land with ROGOs, the county has determined it’s closer to 3,000.
Hurley said, “That appears to be accurate. The planning director for the county, Emily Schemper, presented that to the board a month or two ago, and we are working with her office as well as Marathon and about to work with Islamorada to obtain those lists. What we will do once we get those is we will filter out that data, again, focusing on what is in the Florida Forever boundary and prioritize those conservation type purchases first. However, the county has set aside money and Marathon as well and I believe Islamorada now to purchase the lots that are not on the Florida forever list, meaning they likely don’t have a lot of habitat to protect. We’ve had some feedback recently about oh, why is land authority involved in that kind of work? The key is every property that we buy down here, whether it’s got existing habitat or not, can be reused and replanted and turned back into its natural state. I think people forget that. We have a whole arm of our operation that restores property and that’s a very important part of land stewardship.”
Where do the funds to purchase land come from?
Hurley said, “Our money comes from a half of a cent that is charged to hotel stays, and vacation rentals. So we collect that. Then we also have a state park surcharge. In other words, the State Department of Environmental Protection, their parks department gives us a little bit, I think it’s 50 cents on each entry into a state park. All of that money is then put into different funds at our office. That’s what we use to buy these lands. That for your listeners means it’s not their tax money that they pay ad valorem on their property value.”
If someone would have a parcel that would be deemed undevelopable, could they reach out to the land authority?
Hurley said, “We are constantly in that market, because those are often the most environmentally sensitive. It’s kind of hard to explain. But long, long ago, when the planners and the board adopted the zoning maps, they knew certain neighborhoods were still fully environmentally sensitive. So they often gave those parcels a different zoning to where they don’t have a full, what’s called transferable development, right, or TDR. So they don’t have enough density in the zoning to get a building permit and we get a lot of sellers from those types of lots, and we’re always looking for them. Pretty much the only thing we don’t buy is submerged land.”
How is the land valued?
Hurley said, “It’s market value and we’ve gotten much more aggressive over the past couple of years with that as well. We appraise properties continuously, anything we resell to the state, we have to appraise. So we often are doing private market appraisals. But also, we keep inventories of sales in neighborhoods all around the Keys. So we know like in this neighborhood, this is what the latest sales are and then we use those to develop our offers.”
Anyone who would like to talk more about becoming a seller, call 305-295-5180.
Hurley said, “You can also find us on the website and email us if you’re more comfortable with that. But we take, listen, unless it’s got, like I said, submerged or serious dumping issues, we are interested in buying the property.”
There is a staff at the land authority that are adept at valuing land.
Hurley said, “We’ve added staff over the past couple of years also, because we have this opportunity to resell to the state. So we want to buy as much as possible and get that resold and replenish our resources. We have three buyers in total now where it used to be one. There’s never a profit. That’s part of the deal. The deal is appraised value or what we bought it for whichever is less. But that’s okay. Because it’s, again, a partnership and we want the state to be able to do as many deals as possible. So that’s kind of the formula we’ve set up with them.”