By Christopher Curry

Gainesville Sun
Staff writer

The Suwannee River Water Management District and Alachua County have completed an approximately $2.5 million purchase of conservation property along the Santa Fe River.

The 463-acre tract runs along the river for nearly 1 1/2 miles. A mix of swamp forest where river birch, cypress and tupelo trees grow and an upland forest area populated by spruce pine and oaks, the property is directly east of the water management district's 737-acre Santa Fe River Ranch and nearly one mile west of the point where State Road 121 and County Road 239 cross near the Alachua/Union county line.

The riverfront property will be an addition to the adjacent Santa Fe River Ranch, which the water management expects to open to the public later this year.

"Our plans are to not develop that property extensively but to allow some of these passive recreation uses such as biking, hiking and trail riding," said Terry Demott, acquisitions coordinator for the Suwannee district.

The purchase of the land from the Osceola Land & Timber Corp. was completed on Aug. 4. The property consists of three separate tax parcels, the largest of which Osceola Land & Timber purchased for $2.48 million in 2006, Clerk of Courts records show. The Alachua County Property Appraiser's Office listed the market value of the property at approximately $1.8 million, while the taxable value of the agriculturally zoned land was a little more than $117,000.

The water management district and county purchased the property for $2,494,324. The water management district used $1.87 million in state Florida Forever conservation funds, and county government's Alachua County Forever program contributed $624,324 generated by the half-cent Wild Spaces & Public Places sales tax that voters approved in November 2008. As state budget cuts have diminished the district's annual allotment of Florida Forever funds from about $7.5 million to approximately $1.5 million, Demott said it's become more vital to partner with the county on conservation purchases.

Meanwhile, the county expects that, by the end of the year, its full allotment of sales tax funding for Alachua County Forever will either be spent or tied to a contract offer.

Initially projected to raise nearly $17.1 million for conservation purchases, the tax is now expected to raise a little less than $13.1 million toward that program. Ramesh Buch, project manager for Alachua County Forever, said about $5.9 million remains, but that money will be gone if land owners and the County Commission approve contract offers already made.

Protecting land along the Santa Fe River, particularly the Osceola Land & Timber tract, has emerged as a priority goal of the Alachua County Forever program.

The nonprofit Alachua Conservation Trust also has plans to buy and preserve undeveloped property along the river. The group has a $4 million grant from the Florida Communities Trust to go toward the acquisition of property along the river.

"The important thing is to protect as much of the river corridor as possible, and that's what we're trying to do," said Robert Hutchinson, executive director of the trust. "A portion of the river is developed and a portion should stay undeveloped."

Hutchinson said the first priority is a nearly 100-acre property the city of Gainesville owns. The county made a prior attempt to buy that land, but city officials said they could not come down from the approximately $570,000 asking price.