Volusia County issued the following announcement on Sept. 7.
On hiatus for nearly a decade, the highly popular Volusia Forever land acquisition program is back in business.
Volusia County voters saw to that in November 2020, when a referendum on extending the program for another 20 years was overwhelmingly approved by 75.6% of the electorate. And on Tuesday, the Volusia County Council finalized plans to renew the program by adopting a process for land acquisition and revised property evaluation criteria, including new criteria for preserving forests and farmlands. Through a small property tax approved by voters, Volusia Forever finances the acquisition and improvement of environmentally sensitive, water resource protection, forests, farmlands and outdoor recreation lands that are managed and conserved in perpetuity.
The program was initially approved by voters in 2000 for a 20-year term. Last year’s ballot language that resulted in renewal of Volusia Forever expanded the program’s conservation and preservation goals to also include forests and farmlands. In the same election last year, Volusia County voters also extended the ECHO program for another 20 years.
Since its inception, Volusia Forever has resulted in the acquisition of approximately 39,000 acres through both traditional land purchases and the purchase of conservation easements, which ensure conservation and good private stewardship of the land. While the county’s land management activities have continued, by 2012, the bulk of the program’s acquisition funds were expended. But now, with the program and its funding renewed for another 20 years, the county is getting ready to revive efforts to acquire and preserve additional property. A citizens’ advisory committee appointed by the County Council to help oversee the program has met 10 times, including a joint workshop with the council and multiple community listening sessions. The result was a series of recommendations for new operating policies and procedures, which the council adopted on Tuesday. They include criteria for ranking property for consideration for purchase – things like whether a property contains threatened or endangered animal species, springs, a coastal or estuarine habitat, an archaeological site, historic resource or some other unique geological feature. The council also approved two other committee recommendations. The first was to increase the fund’s set-aside for land management expenses from 10% of the program’s tax proceeds to 15%. And the second was to pay for the land acquisition staff and operations out of the program’s tax proceeds, which amounts to approximately $193,000 a year.
Brad Burbaugh, the county’s resource stewardship director who oversees the Volusia Forever program, emphasized the importance of land management activities that help maintain habitats and amenities such as trails while ensuring that the public can enjoy lands acquired through the program.
“We don’t want to buy it and lock it up,” Burbaugh told the council. “We want to give our public access to it. So that’s an important component of what our land management team does.”
Tuesday’s decisions pave the way for the county to put out an open call on Oct. 1 for applications from willing sellers who want their property to be considered for purchase under the program. The application period is tentatively scheduled to close on Nov. 15. After that, county staff and the advisory committee will begin reviewing the applications for eligibility. County staff also will conduct site visits and evaluate each property using the criteria adopted by the council on Tuesday. The advisory committee will then develop two lists – higher priority properties and ones that are considered lower priority based on the evaluation criteria. The higher priority list will be presented to the County Council, which will make the final decision on which properties the county will pursue for acquisition. Each acquisition will be presented to the County Council for final approval.
The county plans to go through the application, property evaluation and selection process two times a year.
Original source can be found here.
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