Commission Briefed on Environmentally Sensitive Lands Program

Sustainability and resiliency take a lot of forms and in Flagler County that includes the environmentally sensitive lands program. According to a presentation from Erick Revuelta, public lands and natural resources manager, the objectives of the county program is “to acquire and improve land to protect drinking water sources, preserve wildlife habitat and environmentally sensitive lands, reduce risk of wildfires, improve water quality of lakes, streams and the Intracoastal Waterway.” The objectives also include the promotion of economic development through the creation of nature-based tourism property and infrastructure.

Revuelta provided county commissioners with an update on program activities at a meeting earlier this month. The meeting included commission approval of a contract with the North Florida Land Trust to help the county implement the environmentally sensitive lands program over three years at a cost not to exceed $120,000 annually.

“I just wanted to give you a quick update on where we are on acquisitions,” Revuelta said, offering a brief history of the program in Flagler County.

Revuelta said the program began in 1988 with the approval by county voters of an ad valorem tax to acquire environmentally sensitive lands. The program was extended in 2008 for an additional 20 years.

According to Revuelta, the county has acquired 25 properties over the years totaling 5,582 acres. He reviewed the eight steps of the acquisition process, including submission to staff of an application for a piece of property to be identified as environmentally sensitive, staff review and evaluation of the application, evaluation and ranking of the application by the Land Acquisition Committee, review and approval by the Board of County Commissioners, negotiations with the land owner, purchase approval from the Land Acquisition Committee and county commission and finalization of the purchase.

Revuelta also talked about a countywide conservation needs assessment to determine areas where the land acquisition program would be needed.

“I’ve been around Flagler County for 20 years, so I am fairly familiar with it,” he said, adding the assessment helps determine “where should we be buying land.”

Revuelta said there have been periods when there was not a lot of acquisition activity under the program, but that has changed.

“At this point, we’re seeing a lot of activity,” he said.