The County Commission last week identified 560 acres of environmentally sensitive land that it hopes to buy for its Environmental Lands Acquisition Program.
The nine properties are expected to be the first to be bought utilizing the initial $25 million of a $50 million bond issue approved by voters in 2022.
A panel of nine volunteers has spent the last year poring over the details of dozens of nominated properties and has ranked them into three tiers, with county staff now directed to attempt to negotiate the purchase of Tier 1 listings.
The Tier 1 properties include:
- A 36-acre site on 73rd Avenue in Winter Beach located at the east end of 69th Street.
- A 3.4-acre parcel on Wabasso Island across from the Environmental Learning Center along the Indian River Lagoon.
- A 12.7-acre parcel in Osprey Estates west of the Indian River Lagoon across from Gifford Point. The southern boundary is Bridgeview and Gifford Dock Road runs along the west and north boundaries, terminating at 45th Street.
- A 228-acre parcel at Kanner Farms West, south of State Road 60, adjacent to Indian River County Padgett Easement and south of Covey Ranch. Southern boundary is the Okeechobee County line and a large power plant.
- A 19.36-acre parcel west of Jungle Trail along the Indian River Lagoon, also adjacent to Captain Forster Hammock Preserve-IRC Conservation Area.
- A 194.4-acre project composed of nine parcels on what’s known unofficially as Kelly Road, south of 13th Street SW, between 27th and 43rd avenues.
- An 8.79-acre parcel in Terra Estates adjacent to the south prong of the St. Sebastian River.
- A 42.04-acre project combining five properties owned by four owners near Hale Groves on U.S. 1, including the Hale Groves Storefront, grove properties, Durrance Place property, Durrance Corner property, and 93rd Lane Riverfront.
- A 15.6-acre parcel on Foster Road in Sebastian.
Indian River County voters previously approved two large purchases of environmentally sensitive lands with a $26 million bond referendum in 1992 and a $50 million bond referendum in 2004. That funding was enlarged by a variety of state and federal grants to more than $138 million to purchase nearly 12,000 acres.
