GENEVA, Fla. – As Central Florida continues to grow, so does the need to strike a balance between urban and rural areas.
In eastern Seminole County, 1,300 acres of the Yarborough Ranch property has been the center of that discussion. This week, a state board decided to purchase the land for conservation.
“The benefit is really going to play out over many, many decades,” said Commissioner Jay Zembower. “The benefit is not only to the citizens of Seminole County, putting this into conservation and preservation, but to the citizens of the state as a whole because now with the state making the decision to purchase it’s going to become part of the Little Big Econ State Park.”
Documents from the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund meeting Tuesday show the state will acquire the land for $34.5 million under the Florida Forever Program. The program aims to preserve ecosystems and conserve natural resources, including water and wildlife.
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The Yarborough Ranch property contains 1,361 acres near the Big Econlokhatchee Drainage Basin and Geneva Freshwater Lens. It is also close to Little Big Econ State Forest and serves as a critical link to existing conservation lands.
“It fills in the missing link basically from Flagler County all the way down to south Osceola County,” Zembower said. “It also protects the wildlife in that area. It also protects the water quality for not only Seminole County but the entire Central Florida region.”
The property is named after the cattle-ranching family that has owned the property for many years. In recent years, they considered selling it to a developer to build homes there. The county considered buying the land themselves to preserve it for generations to come, while they asked the state’s conservation program to step in and purchase it.
“It’s been a year since we put in the original application and there’s been numerous meetings,” said Rick Durr, the director of Seminole County’s Parks and Recreation Department. “To see it turn out in such a positive way has been fantastic.”
News 6 met with David Bear, the head of Save Rural Seminole, who explained why this piece of land in particular has been so critical.
“It’s not just 1,300 acres, you know, in some random place,” said Bear. “It’s 1,300 acres in an ecologically critical location.”
Bear says there has always been a push and pull between developers wanting to buy up land, and those who aim to protect it.
“There’s always push from developers to try to pierce that rural boundary, which has been the source of many fights in the past,” Bear said. “This 1,300 acres is right in the middle of it. So, if it wasn’t conserved, there was the threat that that would be a new battleground for this developer fight.”
Bear says the sale to the state’s Florida Forever Program is a good outcome for everyone involved.
“I grew up here and I want my kids to have the same opportunity to see natural Florida and the old Florida that I did,” Bear said.
Leaders in Seminole County seem to agree that this is the best-case scenario for them as well.
“The Florida Forestry Service which manages the property directly across the street has looked into rolling this property directly into their management and responsibilities as well,” Durr said. “So, yes. It couldn’t have worked out better for us.”
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