It might it might apply as well. The confusing thing with species is like there's a memo and then all these I think best Best practice.
Keep the drones away from >> Okay. All right. Good morning everyone. We will go ahead and get started here. Um, welcome everyone to the March 20th, 2026 meeting of the Valuchia Forever Committee
meeting. Um, we will start with a roll. Jessica G here. Suzanne Shyber. >> Kelly Frasa at this time. Gerald Fezer here. John Campbell >> here. >> Derek Lontine >> here. >> John Maluso
>> here. >> Wanda Vanam >> here. We have a quorum. Fantastic. Thank you everyone and happy Friday. Um we will start with public participation. We do have Miss Connie Colby here to speak with us. Um please come to the mic. Um you have three minutes.
>> Good morning Connie Colby Orman Beach. um had so much fun at the council on Tuesday that I thought I'd come back for make more fun. Um some of the things that I heard I just want to check and make sure that I understand they're going forward with some other things. Um
like conservation um may be acquire this is from Florida statute 704. Um conservation easements may be acquired by any government body. They run with the land and are binding
on all subsequent owners and the um easements are perpetual. I'm just giving a quick things on some of these things. Um this is from the resolution 2020
about policies and procedures. Um it states that it is the intent of the program to achieve maximum impact by partnering with other entities through awards of acceptance of grants, joint projects, and other cooperative efforts.
It is the intent of the county to use the funds approved herein to apply for matching grants awarded under the Florida Forever Program and any amendments there too and any similar federal pro fund programs to maximize the use of public money monies
to benefit a pelia county. And last but not least, I just want to mention that the county um has an application into St. John's Water Management District for um
uh for an environmental um study. And there there's a tab on the page that has a place for comments. Um, I'm not sure if these people on the board are allowed to do that or not, but um, somebody else
may hear or see this that they might want to go out there and make a comment because it regards the motocross project and I know how that use of that land affected Galuchia forever. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. >> All right. Um, next up is the approval of the January 30th, 2026 meeting minutes. Has everyone had a chance to review? If so, we will entertain a motion. >> I'll make a motion we accept the minutes
January 20th. >> All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? >> We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Moving on to new business. I will note at the beginning that you may have noticed in your backup
that for item two for Lake Diaz, I drafted an easement for Mr. Hershed about a year ago. It is in your backup. Um so I have filled out a voting conflict form. Um I will be abstaining from that vote just based on the representation. Um but we will still go through um the materials and and take a
vote. Um so we will start with eligibility. You can see we're doing a hybrid for the Lawson property. Um so we will start on eligibility review for Lawson Road. Thank you. Uh Tim Teler with evolution forever program. I did want to uh point out the same thing is that while we try
to fasttrack these applications, there are steps that are required and we do want a representative to be present. So uh the Lake Diaz property, we walked into the meeting today knowing that one wasn't prepared to go to the ranking stage. So we'll process it for eligibility today. It's not yet ready to
go to the ranking stage. Uh the other one, Lawson Road, I'm just scanning the room right now. We should have a representative in the audience here. I had a confirmation they would be here. My uh advice is we just process eligibility, keep moving. If they show up, wonderful. We'll move to ranking. If
they don't, we'll just keep it eligible and leave it there. So, with that said, if there's no questions, we'll jump right into the first item. Okay. So the first item for your consideration for eligibility is the Lawson road
application. This is an agricultural easement application. Uh our our forest and farmlands program staff had scored it a 13 out of 19 and the minimum score required to move through this stage is a is a nine out of 19. It's roughly 731
acres in size. not within a a target area and doesn't necessarily have um uh conservation property adjacent to it. With that, we'll stand by for some questions. >> Questions for staff on Lawson Road.
All right, we will entertain a motion. >> Question. I'll make a motion that we uh make this property eligible. >> All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? We have a motion and a second. Mr. Lonte, you had a question. >> I'm just checking. So, you're saying
it's not in any uh the corridor uh you know, there's different grades of it at all. So, not even like, you know, four or five or something, I guess, quality wise or the OTO corridor not doesn't fit any any corridor at all. >> Well, when we answer that question, we
are answering it from the partnership perspective. So, there's no corridor that's going to open up any funding uh opportunity for this one. It's best and and I will share this with the committee right now. It's best partnership potential for Valuchia County is through the rural and family lands protection
program. We did work with the landowners representative when this one was being packaged up and put together and they did get an application into that rural and family lands program in time. So, it's also processing with FDAX while it's processing with us and we'll certainly talk about a partnership down
the road. Does >> that answer your question? >> I think so. Yeah. Thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second to find this eligible. Um, all those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Likewise. Right. This is found as eligible. We'll
move on to Lake Diaz. Good morning everyone. Hunter Falmer with Land Management. Our next property is Lake Diaz. Um, this is Fee Simple. This was scored by staff at 11 out of 21. to the required 10. Um
it's around 50 acres. Um this is in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem project area and also the Florida Wildlife Corridor and there's currently no adjacent conservation properties. >> Questions for staff on this site?
>> U if I may jump in real quick. Um this is adjacent to the Carowway Lake property that is going through the closing process. Um, so that will be a future conservation land once that closes adjacency, but currently for scoring purposes, it's it's not on the
map series. >> I have a question. >> Um, in my notes, I I had written down that it didn't have um access. Is that correct? >> So, there is an access sement in place.
Access seizement is um it's non-exclusive and assignable. So meaning if somebody bought this property, the easement would benefit to them. Runs with the land. Uh so there is an access easement uh pardon me from uh State Road 11 to this property.
>> Did I not read it's not a public access though? Correct. I thought I read in somewhere that there was no public that there was an easement to the property, but I was concerned that didn't it sound like it was not a public access though? It was >> That's what I thought. That's why I asked the question.
>> So, I'll reread the easement. I don't recall it discussing public versus private in the easement document itself. Um, >> I believe the words I wrote down were no access. And to me, that just meant no
public access because >> why I mean, I wouldn't be thinking about private access since we're voting on public. >> So, certainly that's true today. There's no public access today. That is a true statement right now. uh in the scenario where the county acquired it, um I'm going to wait for Sabrina to tell me I'm
incorrect here, but uh that easement would uh run with the land and would benefit Valuchia County. And under that scenario, I don't I don't know why we would not be able to open it up for limited public access. >> Should we ask the attorney that wrote the easement?
>> Tim, Tim, I'll just jump in real quick. Um, you know, today is just for eligibility. Um, we'll get to the details of the easement when we do the property report and bring that back for sorting. We'll have more information um on the possibility of the
easement and access at that time. >> And I I do think the call out was just that there's no public right of way, but that's all I'm going to say because I drafted these Other questions for >> I have another question. Did you visit
the property? >> So we had one staff person uh uh attempt to visit it and there was an issue with the lock on the gate. So and and that is the reason why this was not processing to ranking today is that we could not get the physical access to the property
necessary to complete the reports for the ranking process. How >> how do you get to the property uh >> from State Road 11? It's my understanding there is a gate and uh if you can traverse through the gate, there is an access easement that runs along
the north side of the property to the east. >> It goes getting into it. Does it go through the north of pro the parcel ending in 0090 goes through that or to the north of it? property to the it on our map where it's zoned in a little
bit. Got the different parcels. >> You look at the aerials, it's not obvious where the easement is coming into it. >> I do agree. We haven't mapped the easement yet. So, um, it was my assumption that it ran along the north side of those properties, but I'll I'll
caveat that and say we just not have not laid it out yet to be 100% certain. >> There is a sketch in the easement >> and and we will note in the property report when the property report is complete um the access
easement finding. >> Um, I have another question. Um, Do you uh who do you anticipate partnering on this? >> So at this time we haven't identified uh partners. There is some uh potential for
uh Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Uh depending upon the nature of how this is processed and their funding level, there is some partic participation potential from that organization. We have not tried to move this through triage. It's basically just come in. We've done a quick analysis on
it and then present it to it to you all today. Um couple just technical questions I guess. Um can you remind me what uh a bay wetland is because it does say those are like a special kind I guess or put in quotes if you happen to know.
>> So uh bayheads are usually sort of a basin. um that's occupied by bay vegetation which could be lolly bay sweet bay so they're wetland trees so it's like a forested wetland essentially >> okay so there was a distinction I think
it said something in the application was like 25 acres of one or it's like half half of that and not that I guess >> that sounds right they're they're distinct from I would say like a a cypress you know floodplane wetland or something like
Great. And um just another again technical question when we cover um some of these maps. Um the so the Careway Lake I know you just said we're um working through that. Um but the Careway L Lake Sanctuary can you remind me again
the status of so that is currently owned differently right the on the top of some of these maps. I don't know if you know, there's a little different section >> on page 73 of the backup that he's looking at. >> So, yeah, one says sanctuary in a
different color and the So, that's the north the the top, right? So, that's we're we're going to have to get back to you uh to give you the history of that. Um it's it's not something I had researched coming in today, so I apologize. It's okay. But I didn't know
if Yeah, just who owns it. I guess we'll figure that's my main question. >> I'm good. >> The land um like if you're looking at the map on the right side, uh
it's obviously private land. Are there houses? I mean, I can see some to the north, but right next to the easement, are those are there houses in that? I can't quite >> I believe they are houses. >> Okay. >> Other questions for staff?
>> All right, we will entertain a motion. >> I make a motion to make this property eligible. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. And we have one abstaining.
That motion passes. Um and that property is found eligible. So I am looking out and nobody has joined us in terms of ranking. So I will defer to staff on where we go from there.
So, we've been doing a little bit of research as this conversation's progressed. Hunter's just found some information on his phone. Carowway Lake Sanctuary appears to be a private owned Autobon property.
So, it doesn't say easement. I think it's a fee property that Ottabbon owns. >> Thank you for that. we would then be moving into sorting. Um but I believe we will need to defer that because we do not have a representative
present. So that will be deferred to our next meeting um regularly scheduled meeting and we will move to staff comments. >> Okay. I'm going to work through property updates and um if I get caught up in
that and and don't remember to go ahead and yell at me. I did want to brief you all on just where our partnerships funding levels are as we understand them uh going forward. So I think that's important information everybody understand. We talk about partnerships there's a lot that comes with it
including them actually having funding that's available for our project. So uh the first project update though that I'll I'll share with the with the group is the McMillan agricultural easement. So we are um deep in the closing process on that project right now. We now have
draft closing documents that are circulating amongst the attorneys with a target closing date of March 30th. This is the uh 213 acre agricultural easement project. It's located west of Lake Ashb 415 and we are partnering with the St. John Water Management District on that
one. Briefly, I'll mention Tamoka Farms uh road. So Tomoka Farms Road is a project that we continue to work on. Uh we put a lot of time and effort into trying to bring some partnerships into that project. We're going to find out within the next
two weeks if those partnerships are successful or not. Um unsuccessful obviously we're going to take a step back, look at our overall budget and then figure out a best path forward from there. Uh but we continue to work on that project and try to bring it forward.
Next one I'll mention is the um Bennett Road agricultural easement. So, Bennett Road uh is roughly 124 acres in size. This is a project that we are partnering potentially partnering with the Florida Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services on this role and family lands program. This application also processed through them. So, we've now executed a memorandum of agreement with them just establishing our partnership going forward. Pardon me. So, uh, that's that's one of the
projects that we'll be, uh, beginning the serious work up on in the near future. Careway Lakes, uh, as you recall, this is, uh, 493 acres, uh, adjacent to the piece that you considered for eligibility this morning.
This is also, uh, less than fee. This is a conservation easement in partnership with Florida Department of Environmental Protection. uh their contribution is $8 million into this transaction and uh Lucia contribution is um uh significantly less. Um we are at a point
in time now so we've reached the due diligence stage. The phase one and the survey are are underway for this easement. The survey is expected to take some time. That's the biggest slowdown to closing on it right now. It's just waiting for that survey to come in, but that project property will be closed in the near future. And in case you were
wondering, our contribution on that one was $379,000. Uh, next one I'll bring up is Cypress Ranch, 86 acres, uh, located adjacent to Wiregrass Prairie. This would be a fee simple acquisition.
It's not rendering on your screen for some reason. Uh, we are in the appraisal process on this one. Uh, so we have done title work. We've started the appraisal process here and from there we'll determine uh if an offer is going to be made and if so at what amount. We would
uh forward that to the property owner. Um Lake George Road just to move to the opposite side of the county. We're now up in the northwest side of the county. This is roughly 26 acres of fee simple property. We're also underway on the appraisal
process there. Um, next big one that I'll mention is Riverbend. Uh, roughly 1300 acres in size looking southern part of the county on the St. John's River. We now have a seller signed contract. So, we are just
scheduling the county council agenda item for their consideration of that fe simple acquisition of the Riverbend property. Um, from there, the other update I'll give you is that, um, we are planning to bring the updated AB list and the goals,
uh, to the second April meeting of the county council. Uh, the Riverbend property will probably be May 1st. The way things are progressing, uh, the first meeting of May, pardon me, not May 1st, first meeting in May. U, that may slide back a little bit, so don't write that one in ink. Um, but it is moving
forward. Any questions on specific properties before I talk about overall uh partnership budgets and where that's going to take us? >> Wanda, >> I'm sorry. The Tamoka Farms, was that fee simple or is that also an easement? >> Fe simple. >> Fe simple on that one. Okay. Thank you.
>> Any other questions on property updates? >> All right. >> Okay. So, we talk a lot about partners. We put a lot of work into it and as I as I mentioned there's a there's both uh art and science involved in bringing partners into these transactions
and uh we need some key things and that includes whether our partners have uh funding available whether it's eligible for the area we're looking at and whether there's a willingness on our partners side to proceed. Obviously over time one of our biggest partners has been the Florida Forever program. So, if you're tracking the legislative session,
we're all trying to figure out how those numbers are going to land. For background, um the legislative session ended a week ago today. There was no formal decision made. There's there's there are going to be subsequent special sessions from the legislature that are going to happen. uh the way
things were left on the Florida Forever side, the governor had recommended $115 million towards Florida Forever. The Senate had recommended 35 million and the Florida House had recommended zero. Uh we we don't quite know uh where these numbers are going to end up. In the
past, the governor has been supportive of conservation land uh acquisition and the budgets necessary to complete it. Uh we'll all be tracking that very closely to try to figure out where those numbers are going to fall. Uh we talked about corridors briefly today. If you all
recall, one of the big ones that we try to look at is that OT to O corridor uh a couple years ago that had that had special funding assigned to it. Between that and Big Cypress Cypress, there was roughly $850 million. We've been successful in tapping those funds over
time. Uh Carter is probably the biggest use in Lucia County of those OTO funds. We have other projects that are lining up there too, including Careoway. Um so uh we are all tracking OTO funds too. The best our arithmetic checks out is uh
if you split that 850 million in half between the two projects uh there would be roughly 200 plus million dollars left uh for the O to O corridor. However, there's nothing that requires the state to split it evenly. It could be split unevenly. So if you look at the overall
numbers, there's maybe 160 million left from the overall $850 million budget there. So somewhere between 160 and $200 million is what we're going to have left with the pull from that uh program for
our our upcoming projects. Um there are also rumors that that money may go away. Not to get anybody overly excited or anything, but but we just kind of never know how the legislator legislature is going to treat these things. There there has always been an expression within the state that this money has to be spent
and spent quickly. And now there are rumors there could be some type of a sweep or a partial sweep of those funds. It's just something for us uh to monitor. Uh over on the other side of the state house, the rural and family lands protection program has done very well. Uh it's got a $200 million
recommendation from the governor and the Florida Senate with a $300 million recommendation from the Florida House. Uh that emphasizes there there's a lot of dialogue at the state level now uh regarding fee simple versus less than fee. These are our easements. The
easements are uh certainly popular in 2026 uh from our from our elected representatives. So I think that's reflected in the numbers you see here. Uh we obviously are going to be working with rural and family lands protection program a lot in the future. I think we've done a pretty good job uh of
trying to get as many agricultural easements as we can into both programs and that's key here to try to work on the partnerships. Uh so we had good success. I think we've got six if I remember off the top of my head that are currently on the FDAX list and
processing through and we have been successful because we have money in moving projects up the list if they're in Valuchia County. Having money opens a lot of doors for land conservation in Florida. Um so okay so I've covered our projects and I've covered kind of big
picture state funding. Uh any questions for me? >> I have a question. the agricultural um easements that were being covered by USDA. Were you able to get all of those that you had lined up transferred?
Because I know you I believe you had to go back and reapply through the family decks. >> Yeah. So, we've tried to move those over to uh rural and family lands. One of them was Careway Lakes that we've
obviously handled through D. Uh the other one I believe it was fourstar timber which uh we'll also work with uh roland family lands on. We think we think we're going to be okay kind of moving out of that um RCPP phase. Uh and
and just kind of uh we we are also tracking the AL program, the agricultural lands easement program that that the feds manage and looking for opportunities. We've we've reached out to uh Conservation Florida and asked them to screen the agricultural easements that are coming in for that
federal eligibility too. So just another area we're trying to see if we can acquire some money from. >> So the O2O funding um if it didn't go away, do you have other um lands in the
pipeline right now that you think might qualify for that? You don't necessaril but I'm just I'm just asking in general. >> We do. We do and there are projects that we're actively trying to move through their pre triage screening process right now. So the answer is yes.
>> Other questions for staff Derek? >> Just a general question not really relate. I appreciate the updates on all those things. Um, but I I I know when I look at uh the um the map you brought up or the uh the website um there's a
little circle about the small lots and can you remind me I guess how you get the uh overall number of 41 roughly thousand acres because it said we only acquired like a small wedge. Do you know what I'm talking about? It was one of
those it was up on the screen earlier. There was like our little red wedge, but it was like very small amount out of the full amount. So, just remind me again for the small lot acquisitions. Are we were very low on that because there's just a lot of small lots or how were
those have you I just identified all the small lots like that you think we might want or can you refresh my memory I guess on where these what we have versus what we want for that particular circle? Why why don't I just start with an introduction, remind everybody about the
small lots program, and I'm going to lean on some of my colleagues to the left here who are more technically talented than I am regarding the the mapping and sorting there. But um within our program, within the authorizing resolutions, there is this small lots
program that is designed to try to acquire when there's you know uh uh relevant conservation characteristics of the property. It's designed to acquire what we call these antiquated subdivision lots, which are these properties that were platted before current uh uh uh rules were set up to to
ensure that you had proper access, that there was somewhere for storm water to go, utilities, the whole thing that we work through now to build a modern um subdivision or society. These properties were laid out preceding all of that. So often you see no utility access, no road
access, it's wetlands, etc. So within the program there is the ability for us to acquire these uh smaller um small lots as we call them within these antiquated subdivisions for the property appraisers just value. So
we we do have quite an inventory of people that are looking to continue to process through that program is one of those things we work on it. We we catches catch can when we have some quiet periods we kind of try to move those small lots programs forward. Uh so with that background I'm gonna have to lean on my my colleagues here on how
those numbers are split up on the dashboard. I'm a little bit out of my element. >> Uh so uh great question. So what we have is we have in our GIS servers we have the the layers built out. So those areas that he had talked about where we have
small lot acquisitions. We have the designated areas. What they do is they take the entire acreage calculation of what that is and then as we uh the county buys small lots there's a separate layer that we keep that then does an acreage calculation for that
that is visually represented here on on that pie chart. Um so that's kind of how those numbers are being calculated. Um there should be I should say should be. So originally this this particular dashboard uh was built by it. Uh we will
be rolling out uh once it goes through the staff review process a new dashboard which will give you much greater insights into some of the stuff. But I just want to see if Ashlin uh can you go you see there on the map there is like um like a key of different icons. Uh
there is one with a ribbon and then on the map and then there's a like Yep. Yep. Right down. Keep going a little bit. No. Nope. Right there. Yeah. That one that looks like a little grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah. Click that right there. All right. So, you can see small lot acquired. Small lot acquisitions. Ashlin, if you could turn on the one
that has the I crossed out that says small lot acquisitions. Yep. And then let's see if we can zoom into the map in the center. Click out. Close that. zoom in. It might be based on scale. See if that turns on at all.
This is a very slow map as we can see. And you guys might be able to play. See you right there. I keep going. Okay. So, if we those areas in red are the small lots being acquired there and visually
on your screen, those are all in that you know that Palmetto corridor that runs right through the center of the county. Um, we will work on the on the new dashboard when it comes out to have something more visually appealing. Um, but that is that is what is happening
there and that's how that's getting calculated. >> And the the list of subdivisions that they target, they're on the Forever website with the small lot program. So, you can see what that list is. >> And you pick those up two ways. Willing sellers and then taxes.
>> Yes. Achievement. Thank thank you very much. I appreciate that again refresher and uh again there's website's you know great just want to say overall it's a lot of information but sometimes you have people are digging they want to know how and maybe people following along can now know where to click and uh again so the
overall acres remaining we if we get 41,000 would cover all those subdivisions I guess basically it sounds like so yeah I didn't know if parts of the subdivision though maybe are maybe the not forest we're just assuming all of its wanting or what we want. But I mean that's yeah I guess a fair
assumption. So uh that's I think all my questions. So thank you. >> Other questions for staff? >> All right. Well, thank you as always. Suzan, >> one last question. Um you may not know the answer, but when you brought up the Florida Forever funding, um do you know
specifically if that's going to be brought back or or not brought back at this point? >> Yeah, great question. Um I I don't know what's going to be handled in these special sessions and I've been reading that there maybe two to three sessions out there. So I don't I have not seen an
agenda. I don't quite know exactly what's on it. >> And I I will say on that point um just a reminder on the administrative process at the state level is that a governor can mandate a special session. He can't mandate that they take action in it
except for the budget. And so there will be a special session on property tax certainly um there may be others um but other than guaranteeing that a budget is adopted there is no guarantee on outcomes from those topics. All right seeing no other questions for
staff. Thank you guys. Um we will move on to board comments. Do we have any comments from the committee? I have a a kind of a question and I know every meeting I've been harping on Lake Moore but when I heard something in the dialogue at council meetings from the
last well it's months it seems Lake Moore has been brought up and it was brought up as storm water retention pond. I think I even heard one council member say we bought that for storm water and that kind of I don't recall ever voting for that to be rec to bought for storm
water. My question is, is that something that is in the works maybe other departments in the county to make Lake Moore a storm water reception basin? >> Um, well, without having the resolution right in front of me, storm water is
part of the resolution of fore um if you're referring to like developed storm water or natural storm water storage. I think this was for development storm water that they were going to be pumping the water from where the lot of the flooding issues are over in Victoria that that water and I' I
heard that I've heard that from other staff, county staff that in other departments that yeah, we're going to run pipes over to there that was in a study maybe that came up. And my question is, okay, I get you want to try to run water to a central point, but where does the water go from there? and
and are we developing systems now for these properties that you know water a lake yeah we can pump it to a lake but a lake's just like a storm water retention pond it only holds so much water and in rainy seasons they're generally full also and so in my simple mind uh an existing pond to become storm water
retention unless you're going to go reM it and redevelop it is not a very satisfactory solution and so I'm just kind of curious where where we're going and maybe no one knows here in this room but it's certainly something that we ought to have on the radar. I just like to know. I think going forward citizens
like to know too if some of these purchases are, you know, okay, this is going to help solve our storm water problem. Be careful for what you comment or, you know, make predictions on because that may not be and you may create other unintended consequences.
>> And it sounds like that might be something that's in one of the basin management plans or something that >> Yeah, it's one of the plans. And I think that of the what I hear the other day two million we spent two or three million how many millions in planning now for our storm water basins >> which you know some of us said we could
gun for free to water flows downhill is a uh you know very good plan so how do you account for it but uh we probably could have saved a couple million but anyway that's uh I that's a concern that I had. I'm just curious >> what that all means.
>> So I does anyone know the answer to his question? No, that that's a say a broader range of my knowledge on that topic right now. I I can certainly research with the other county departments and try to get more information on the details of that.
That's not anything that's running through our division. So, I don't I don't have those details. >> You might be some of the last to know. >> All right. Other comments? >> I have a couple of questions concerning easements. Um, I wanted to ask Jessica
because this is the only place that I can talk to you. Um, when you spoke at the um, council meeting Tuesday, you brought up the easements and I couldn't quite grasp what your concern was or what you were bringing forward. I don't even want to call it a concern because
everything gets weighed, right? Um, but what you were talking about basically I'm sure curious. >> Yeah. That's so and I do think that there was a a misunderstanding perhaps of my comment based on what I heard at the end of the hearing as well from someone else. >> I I agree and this is why I want this
just brought out now since we can talk to each other here but nowhere else. So yeah. >> Yeah. So I was say I was trying to address the comment that was made um by some policy makers that um a program change needed to occur to avoid um partnerships on our easement documents
and keeping local control. Um, and my general comment was that the county council is the ultimate decision maker on the purchase of those easements and properties. And if there is a specific property that they feel from a policy perspective we should be the lead
manager on, they could negotiate that in that easement document. Um, but that is no reason to um remove our ability to have the strong partnerships that we do today. >> Fair enough. >> Thank you. And then um I would just like to to get
on record and especially since we had a speaker today, can you just explain in layman's terms what an easement is because there's all kinds of um misinformation and misunderstanding.
And so I'm just wanting to get it on record and we actually do have a speaker here who basically asked that question more or less. I'm breaking it down. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, I'll I'll answer for you. It depends. And I say it jokingly as as an attorney,
but an easement is a right in property that you negotiate and it's one of your to go back to law school, it's one of your sticks in your bundle. So, it is something that property owners can negotiate. Uh, an easement is a, you know, it can be anything from like the
access easement we were just discussing for Lake Diaz where one property owner gives another property owner the limited right to cross their property to access theirs or for our purposes it can be a conservation easement. It can be an agricultural easement but it is defined
by the document and the agreement between the parties and then they typically run with the land. So, and there's a whole other thing that can happen to easements over time, but you really don't want to get into that discussion. >> Yeah, that's not that wasn't my question. I mean, what you answered was
my question, not the other. And the last question that kind of goes along with that is every easement is negotiated separately. Uh, correct? Because for example, uh, growing crops, cattle, environmental,
>> right? Just like any property transaction, each property transaction is unique to that property. An easement's just another property transaction. It's another type of property transaction between two a willing buyer and a willing seller or you know what, however you want to to um
arrange the deal. As long as it's within the law, you can do it, >> right? But they're unique to the property. Those were the key words you just said, I believe. >> Correct. Correct. And then like I said, I mean, there there are certain things that are the same with all easements. you know, you have a grantor or a grantee. There's certain legal concepts
that are the same that runs through every easement, but the the easement itself is a transaction between two parties. >> Thank you. >> And I do want to add because I think it was brought up by the um public comment there. Conservation easements can be
negotiated for a wide range of anything. Like um Sabrina noted, there is a state law section that identifies state conservation easements. And if a conservation easement is vague, it provides some general guideline guidelines. Um, but that does not mean that every conservation easement that
exists has to match that statute. It can be negotiated separately. >> I just felt like it was time to basically get that on record since it just keeps getting brought up everywhere. So, thank you for that, Wanda. For our purposes, I think the key
thing with the conservation easement, agricultural easement, whatever, is that the property owner is more or less giving up the right to develop the property. >> The current the current property owner is the one that's negoti the current the
rights are vested in the current property owner. So, they are the one that is the willing seller, negotiator, whatever they want to do as far as the transaction. But for our purposes, if we were to go into partnership with someone, it would be based pretty much
on their agreement that they either continue doing what they're doing on the property or um what they plan to do with the property is not to develop it. It would be subject to whatever the easement says that we negotiate with them. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you.
>> Okay. All that being said, the access to the Lake Daz property goes with the land does and if the county acquires it is it then it becomes a public easement. >> So it the county would inquire whatever
easement rights are currently there. So that easement when you read it, it's an ingress egress access easement for pedestrian and ve vehicular traffic. That's what we would get. Okay. Other board comments on this side.
>> I just wanted to comment that I thought the packet that was put together for the agenda item at the uh meeting was exceptionally well done and it looked like that was a ton of work that went into that. So, thank you for that. I thought it was well done. >> I agreed and I told staff and they were
impressed that we all looked at it. So, I actually I agree. I I want to thank you for doing all of that work even though it was pulled but I still appreciated it. It I know it was a lot. It was really thorough and good ex
explaining. So, thank you for that. >> Yeah, everybody now has a good uh reference book for the future. >> Absolutely. Yeah, >> so just u general comments I guess. Um again, I support that sentiment as well.
Um and I guess I just wanted to comment here on my uh just favorability of Valuchia forever. I guess I didn't uh have the opportunity to talk on Tuesday, but uh it was yeah, great to see all that support from all the the public.
Again, it was a full room for those who weren't there in person. But um yeah, I mean I I like to point out that my reason for supporting Folution Forever is, you know, basically because it supports species protection. I mean, I appreciate that it does all this water storage and water conveyance and even
water quality. Uh but I I like it for the habitat value and so I don't want to see it just be retention ponds, especially if they're like, you know, for developments and just uh cookie cutter and stuff. But um yeah, we're losing lots of species all the time. So having these um corridors, having these
uh just sanctuaries is uh is the reason and and yeah, the biggest threat is to our the biggest threat to our county today um is overdevelopment. I mean, that's just that's my opinion and I love that we're protecting it. So um again, just general um praise for Valuchia
Forever as a program and and the staff and everyone for making it um happen. And I'm just uh really proud to be uh from Valuchia to whenever I I see these notes like because I I didn't know the whole history again I wasn't voting in the 80s uh when they first kind of the
first iteration came but to hear from you know groups like you know thousand friends of Florida and all these other groups to say like we're the only not only are we like the first in the county or the first county in the world or not world I guess world I don't know but in the country um to uh to make this kind
of program we also like were the first to vote for it three times I think or something. And I thought those were like really cool points. I was like, "Yeah, we should definitely uh be proud of that." And uh I know I am. And um but yeah, just in general, other ways that I think we should, this is just a general
comment, protect our uh conservation lands and just lands in general are to um not do reszoning so much. Again, this doesn't apply to us, but like uh I think it's generally important to know that when um these when a county council or
city council is asked to vote on like a reasonzoning that increases, you know, development, that's that's one of the places this um you know, these protections or or you know, that can be a point of of stopping some of the um the bad uh problems we're seeing with, you know, if you have too many houses,
you have you know, too much resource u impact. And uh so yeah, the reasonzonings should be one thing to look at. Uh but also enforcement of current rules and laws. I think um there's a question sometimes. I mean if if I see something being some land being
cleared somewhere and I just have questions like hey did you guys look at like the tree protection ordinance and like were the historic trees? What did you do a species impact? A lot of times a lot of developments and again they're not necessarily just you know county review. It's even just water management district and other places. When I check
I I do read permit applications for like a hobby I guess which is kind of weird but um I yeah I see like a lot of times they just get like letter from you know historical resources place uh you know F FWC just saying like oh we probably there's nothing archaeological there
just you know bulldo everything and like you know if you find an arrowhead then you know let us know or something but like they I I don't think that's really a uh sufficient in my view again I'm sorry I'm just like ranting here but um so yeah I'd love to just see enforcement
be done better and um I'm even just concerned about things like um the the county has a rule that every development has to I I believe tell me if this has changed um but has to have at least 15% of the the area be protected as natural area and that should not just be
uninccorporated areas I believe incorporated but I know for a fact like in my my hometown Port Orange that they have actually approved developments less than 15% I don't know why they're allowed to get 15% natural air when they clear all this land which I think 15% is way under a
minimum personally like it should be higher in other you know states or areas it you know it's much higher but at a minimum it should be that but um again just I think I've seen that happen and I jump to chime in >> I was going to jump right in
>> Derek's point to to uh 15% and what what happens when an advisory board passes along their advice and it gets and it gets obviously we all know when it gets to the county council or in Derek's case to the city council. We we've uh as an
Port Orange ad environmental advisory board, I chaired that for four years and and and now vice chair uh I I can't tell you how many times we've recommended raising that 15% and also when it
something comes in front of us to make sure that at least a minimum of 15% stays and I've sat in council and watched it be overturned. So our our advisory board is just what it is in advisory board.
>> So I guess maybe I don't know if this I I can ask this question. I can maybe ask it after the meeting here today too. But um I mean is that is the city allowed to do that? Like are they allowed to then violate county rule? >> Planning attorney. >> We will I will gladly chat with you
about this after as well. Um, but the the minimum standard does allow local governments to allow exceptions just like the county does, but it is a a general standard. They can also go higher if they'd like. It's just a minimum. We'll >> push for that for sure. I appreciate that. And I just to wrap up again, thank you for letting me kind of rant here.
Uh, but yeah, again, I appreciate Valuchia Forever being uh the will of the voters, you know, that's that's the last thing which I'm, you know, everyone's bringing up that that's uh I I can speak for myself as a voter that that was my intent was to protect habitat. So again, thanks so much for for listening. All right, looking for last board
comment. >> One more comment. Uh, two points um for the public. And if you didn't read the whole packet, it was for the council. I thought Clay Henderson's letter, he's a must-read. Those of you that think Clay
just works at Stson, he was a former council member. He pushed wetlands protection when there was none in this county. and he he was an attorney I believe for Florida Ottabbon and so he's got a long long career in this county
doing that and he it was a very good read. I thought if you're only going to look at one thing in that packet and you looked at that you could probably feel pretty good. I think it's two or three pages long. Um, the other thing, uh, you know, to go back to what Derek was
saying is there's a lot of rules that people don't understand or don't know about. And, um, as Miami Corp develops, okay, now we I I was one of the project managers when we studied the Deep Creek
Basin, and that goes that covers most of Miami. It goes all the way up to 92. It's all east of the land. That's a huge basin. 80% of the Miami Court property is in the flood plane.
Okay. Now, the county rule when I was here in 18 was that if you fill in the flood plane, you have to provide compensating storage in that flood plane. Okay? If there's no high ground
to dig down, how could they possibly develop that land? because you're going to have to fill it all. Um, and I've seen water go over Maytown Road. So, and we actually had surveyed those floods twice in my career
when we saw so and here's, you know, here's a huge area and I bet you it gets incorporated and they ignore those rules. But that's a that's a huge rule that would literally halt that entire
development. Okay, most people don't even know. Derek's looking at me and he had no clue about that. Okay, but that is one of the issues. You see Dan, you see new Smyrna ignores that and that's
the we got good rules. people just got to enforce it and the politicians don't really want to do that and they have to vote on that stuff. So, um it's all nice to have all this protection, all this stuff, but there are bigger fish to fry
than environmental land in this county, trust me, to protect this county. >> And I do just want to New Simrna is one of the few jurisdictions that have a higher than a it's compensating storage is measured in cup for cup usually, right? If you dig a cup, you have to provide a cup. New Simrna is if you dig
one cup of dirt out, you have to give us a cup and a half back so they go above the standard. >> Could I ask questions? I a couple. You were on charter review. Were there any minimum standard uh ordinances or for proposals that came out of charter
review for like minimum storm water that you can't run it over on your neighbor's property or uh >> No, but it's funny you asked this because I was about to push my button to say something about it. Um, one thing that came out was um a letter of
recommendation to the council for once a year um reporting from the cities um on environmental standards. So, cities would be required to report because there's no enforcement like what was just said. It was only a letter of
recommendation, but they're um recommended that they report once a year. And uh the only other environmental type uh besides the VCA forever which he came and spoke on, the only other environmental type
um um uh letter was a letter of recommendation for the flood mitigation committee because there's a flood mitigation committee right now and that's not really environmental other than they're trying to um take care of
the storm water issues. So, for anyone that doesn't know, the mayors and or city managers, um, utilities directors, they all get together and meet. Last year, they met about every other month and they worked
together since, you know, water knows no boundaries and this year they've cut it to quarterly in their meeting and they could stop at any time. They did this out of it. the um flood mitigation committee came out of the round table of
elected officials and the um you know it's different it's a subcommittee of that but realistically they could stop at any time if they wanted to stop and not have another meeting they could and so the letter of recommendation was for
them to continue meeting um also and the uh attorney got with Ben Bartlett and they came up with um somewhat of a goal plan for the future for the meetings and what what's
they're trying to accomplish. So that's not, you know, so much an environmental, but it it impacts environmental. So that's why I'm bringing that up. But other than those letters of recommendation and then the Valuchia Forever amendment, which Russ Brown spoke on, um I don't recall anything
else. That was it. Just >> curious. Thank you. >> There were some things talked about um they were they were denied. And also keep in mind SB80 is preempting. Um a lot of the things that were
discussed were preempted by SB80 and then other things that were talked about were just blatantly denied for what various reasons. >> And I do want to comment that the existing charter would authorize adoption of minimum standards relating to storm water. That language is in the
charter. So it would be an amendment to the minimum standards themselves which was under review of um ENRAC when that committee paused based on Senate Bill 180. So >> well by the time we get that figured out then we're going to be wor our big deal is we're in a drought and where are we going to get all our water? So it's a
cyclical thing. >> All right. Other comments on this side checking here. Okay. I have just one minor one which is that as a followup from the um county council meeting on Tuesday um on April 7th which is a
morning meeting the um bonding issue will be coming before county council for review of the bonding authority for Valuchia Forever. Um I will note that Valuchia Forever staff is not presenting that. That's a financial um office resolution. Um but it will be good to
track and that is all I have. So, thank you everyone and have a wonderful weekend. We are adjourned.