Pinellas to buy 88 acres of undeveloped land

With preservation in mind, the county negotiates a $21.4-million purchase with the McMullen family.

By LISA GREENE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 5, 2002

To those who wanted the land, it didn't matter that the McMullen family wanted $21.4-million, more than $3-million above the county's appraisal and about $243,000 an acre.

"This is a unique parcel," said St. Petersburg resident John Raymond. "It's probably worth it at twice the price."

	[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
	A brackish lagoon, fed by the Gulf of Mexico, spreads through the interior of the 88-acre, waterfront property in Palm Harbor.

In the end, Pinellas County commissioners agreed with Raymond and the thousands of residents who wrote, called, e-mailed or signed petitions urging them to buy the largest tract of undeveloped gulffront land in Pinellas. Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to buy the 88-acre Palm Harbor property, winning applause from an audience packed with advocates.

"We've wanted this day for probably almost a year now, and it's been like a roller coaster ride," said Jerry Miller, a leader of the effort to get the county to buy the property. "We're elated with the commissioners' farsightedness, for what they've done for future generations."

The county has talked with the family for years about buying the land.

But the two sides could never agree on a price, and last year the family moved ahead with plans to put houses on the land. Tuesday's vote was the result of months of more serious negotiation.

The family's own appraisal valued the land at $24.7-million.

Part salt marsh, part sand ridge, the tract is home to gopher tortoises, fox squirrels and an army of wading birds. Commissioners haven't yet decided on a specific plan for how the land would be used, but it will be some mix of park and environmental preserve.

Commissioners said they didn't want the land to get away.

"I see what we have here as something very special," said Commission Chairman Barbara Sheen Todd. "When you think an overpass on U.S. 19 is $14-million, and this is going to serve as the vision that county commissioners had for many years to come."

Commissioner Susan Latvala pointed out that the land was one of many tracts that former commissioners had identified as sites that should be saved in Florida's most densely populated county.

"You can look at the big map of what we've preserved, and there's land throughout the county," she said. "It's something we should be proud of."

Even those who questioned the price, Commissioners Karen Seel and Bob Stewart, voted to buy the land.

"This is an unusual opportunity for the county, probably one it can't refuse; however, at what price?" Stewart said.

Stewart went through the numbers with county staffers.

Borrowing money to buy the land will cost an extra $4.5-million in interest charges.

Money for the purchase will come from Penny for Pinellas sales tax money the county plans to set aside to buy endangered lands.

There's enough money budgeted through 2010, when the Penny tax expires, to cover the purchase. But if Pinellas wants to buy other such lands, it will have less cash. The McMullen property and other land deals will leave less than $6-million to work with.

But county officials hope to offset some of the cost by applying for a $6.6-million grant from the state's Florida Forever Fund.

County additions to the site -- from a simple road to boat ramps and picnic shelters -- could cost anywhere from $200,000 to $6-million, depending what commissioners want, the county's staff said.

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