Contact: Lynda Riley, Lee County Lands Division

(941) 479-8505

CONSERVATION 2020 ANNUAL REPORT CATALOGS PROGRAM’S SUCCESS

FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 21, 2000) – Lee County acquired nearly 700 acres of environmentally sensitive lands in 1999 through the voter-approved Conservation 2020 Program, and currently is negotiating to buy an additional 4,658 acres for long-term conservation.

These are just two of the program accomplishments detailed in the recently released 1999 Annual Report of the Conservation 2020 Program. A listing and map of the lands acquired to date and under review and negotiation can be viewed at the county’s web site at www.lee-county.com/countylands/Cons2020/cons2020.htm.

Lee County voters approved Conservation 2020 in November 1996 through a referendum that increased property taxes for seven years by 50 cents for every $1,000 of taxable property value. The increase raises about $12 million a year to buy environmentally sensitive lands.

Through the end of 1999, the county had collected $32.5 million from the program and spent $11.9 million on property purchases and land management. Ten percent of the funds collected are set aside for land stewardship activities such as exotic pest plant control and provision of passive recreation facilities.

The Conservation 2020 Program is a willing seller program, which means that only properties that are nominated by landowners are considered for acquisition. The county does not pursue acquiring properties by its legal power of Eminent Domain.

The Board of Lee County Commissioners appointed a 15-member citizen advisory committee – the Lee County Conservation Land Acquisition and Stewardship Advisory Committee (CLASAC) – to recommend appropriate properties to be pursued for purchase.

The committee has been meeting nearly monthly since February 1997 to review nearly 17,000 acres of real property nominated for potential purchase by Lee County. Willing sellers submitted 46 property nominations, consisting of more than 7,610 acres, in 1999. Currently the county is negotiating purchase of the largest parcel to date – a 1,115-acre tract on the north side of the Caloosahatchee River just east and west of Interstate 75.

“In the coming year, the Division of County Lands expects to add a significant number of acres of environmentally sensitive lands to the county inventory as the negotiation process reaches culmination on the properties selected during 1999,” says Lynda Riley, the county’s coordinator for the program.