Swiftmud Eyes Aripeka Property

ARIPEKA - Julie Wert was out walking near her home south of Osowaw Boulevard Monday morning when she spotted some distinctive tracks in the sand.
Then she heard a noise, looked up and knew her hunch about the tracks was right.
Black bear.
"There he was, looking at me from about 30 feet away," said Wert, director of the Gulf Coast Conservancy. "It was wonderful."
Wert says the experience demonstrates why the conservancy wants a tract of land on the northwest corner of Osowaw and Shoal Line boulevards - just a mile north of where Wert saw her bear - set aside for conservation.
"It just reinforces our need to get all this property protected," Wert said. "It's a wildlife corridor."
The Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, is looking hard at the nearly 24.5 acres to decide whether to enter into formal negotiations with the owner, Dial One LLC.
Officials in Swiftmud's land resources department are "currently evaluating the property to determine whether to enter into negotiations to acquire it," said Robyn Felix, spokeswoman for the district.
That includes paying for an appraisal of the property, Felix said.
In the face of outcry from neighbors and environmental groups, Dial One withdrew a rezoning request last month that would have allowed an RV park and 26,000 square-foot general store. The land is designated for conservation on the county's land use map; just across Shoal Line is the southern edge of the Weekiwachee Preserve already owned by Swiftmud.
After Dial One pulled its application, the County Commission sent a letter urging Swiftmud to purchase the property to extend the Preserve.
Dial One is a willing seller - for the right price, said Bob Carpenter, owner of BCPeabody Construction Services and a consultant working for the company.
Carpenter confirmed that he has had informal talks with Swiftmud officials.
"We're not in the driver's seat on this," Carpenter said. "We're waiting to see what offer is presented. If it's a fair reasonable offer, we will certainly give it all consideration."
Even with a depressed real estate market, the purchase likely won't be cheap.
Dial One owns eight parcels on the west side of Shoal Line as well as a two-acre tract on the east side that abuts the existing Swiftmud conservation land.
The just market values of the nine parcels range from $66,000 to $247,000, according to the Hernando County Property Appraiser's records. The total value is more than $1.1 million.
State law dictates that Swiftmud pay up to the appraised amount.
Swiftmud gets $22.5 million per year through the state's Florida Forever program, but that's for the district's 16-county area, Felix said.
The county has its own Environmentally Sensitive Lands Fund but is using that money to pursue its plans to enhance two other wildlife corridors in the county near the Withlacoochee State Forest and the Little Withlacoochee River, said Ron Pianta, county planning director.
The county also plans to use some of the roughly $3 million in the fund to buy land and make improvements around Peck Sink, a direct portal to the aquifer that is part of a large watershed in Brooksville.
"That is where we have authorization to spend our money," Pianta said. He said the county is excited to hear Swiftmud is getting an appraisal of the Dial One property.
"That's a positive sign," he said.
Wert and Joe Murphy, conservation chair of the Hernando Audubon Society, said they know that funding is tight.
But a willing seller in a down market presents a golden opportunity for Swiftmud to add missing pieces to a wildlife corridor for black bears and hundreds of other species along the coast from central Pasco County up to Citrus County and beyond, they said.
Coupled with the county's efforts near the state forest, a corridor could also extend east all the way to the Green Swamp.
"If there ever was a time to dig deep and find money for a valuable project," Murphy said, "this is it."