County Says No to Purchase of Gopher Tortoise Property

The fate of a parcel of land on Marco earmarked for purchase by Conservation Collier was again in County Commissioners' crosshairs. In July 2022, Conservation Collier appraised the property containing around 28 Gopher Tortoises at $419,000. A second appraisal in February 2023 came to $429,000. At the April 2023 board meeting, the sellers stuck to the higher $429,000 appraisal; commissioners would only approve at the original appraisal price and voted no on moving forward. Yet even though the City of Marco voted to provide the additional $10,000 at their May 8th council meeting, it still failed at the county level on July 25th when none of the three other commissioners present would second Commissioner Rick LoCastro’s motion to approve. Councilor Saunders, who was not in attendance and unable to vote, left a statement to be read into the record saying he supports purchase of the parcel without using the $10,000 from the City of Marco.

“This is a very fragile piece of property that is already loaded with environmentally sensitive wildlife,” LoCastro said.

“Regardless of the owner holding out for an extra $10,000, we may love that or hate it, in my mind that’s immaterial,” LoCastro said. “Our job is to support the Conservation Collier project and make sure that the money is maximized for the lots that have the most environmental value.”

City Councilor Rich Blonna and City Manager Mike McNees were on hand to advocate for the purchase of the property along with Brad Cornell from Audubon Western Everglades and Audubon Florida. 

Councilor Blonna asked Commissioners to “trust the recommendations of the Conservation Collier Land Acquisitions Committee.” 

“The level of rigor that they apply when deciding upon whether to buy a property or to not buy a property is beyond being impressive,” Blonna said.

 “The only thing more threatened on Marco Island than a Gopher Tortoise is a parcel of undeveloped land,” said Marco Island City Manager Mike McNees. “They’re disappearing very, very quickly.” He added, “There is a legitimate urgency to this.”

Cornell cited Councilor Blonna’s description of the property’s height, adding that “the elevation was the gopher tortoise populations salvation from Ian because while we lost gopher tortoises at Delnor-Wiggins State Park and Hideaway, we did not lose them, 1,300 of them as far as we know, were saved from inundation and drowning.” 

Despite recommendations from Conservation Collier, the City of Marco, and Audubon of Western Everglades, Commissioners Hall and Kowal still had no appetite to purchase the land. “I maintain that the property is conservation because it isn’t marketable,” said Hall. “I guess as a former real estate developer, my risk tolerance is higher than most. I would risk that the property is not going to sell because it is not marketable.” Kowal didn’t like the fact that Marco citizens would be “taxed twice”; once through the Conservation Collier Program and then from the city itself. Commissioner McDaniel had asked staff for more detail on whether the property had archeological significance, another potential stumbling block for development. Staff said that the Wisc property was not marked as having archeological significance.

“We need a benevolent rich person to buy it and donate it to Conservation Collier,” said Councilor Blonna when asked his takeaway on the decision.

“I'm disappointed in the outcome,” said LoCastro when contacted after the meeting, “but Conservation Collier is a big program and we have many more opportunities and a long list of other parcels to consider.  I continue to be fully focused on District One to ensure we continue to get much stronger consideration for our environmentally fragile parcels than we have seen in the past.”