Henry Dean, South Florida Water Management District Director, is offering $10 million on top of the $5 million Orange County chairman Rich Crotty is planning to request for the conservation project.
Dean, a former district director of the St. Johns Water Management District, is challenging that sister agency to contribute as well. But St. Johns Water officials tell county commissioners at a public hearing Dean's campaign is news to them and that the agency's strategy on conservation follows a different path.
Dean told commissioners he envisions a partnership comprised of the county, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the two water agencies that share responsibility for Orange County.
South Florida Water Management Agency's board has to approve Dean's proposal.
Still undecided in the plan is how much Orange County would contribute from its annual average $100 million generated from hotel bed taxes.
Hoteliers perennially have opposed using the money for anything but hospitality industry-related projects. But Crotty has been lobbying the past year to lessen that perception among hotel owners.
The proposal to buy up prime land for conservation and preservation continues to be a controversial subject among pro-development forces and environmentalists who argue new regulations to curb or re-direct commercial development has failed.
"The state and the county will never have enough money to buy up all of the prime dirt in any one area but buying key parcels in selected spots could be one way to halt the ongoing development machine," a commercial broker tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.
Orange County commissioners are expected to hear more details of the land-buying proposal in the coming weeks, staffers tell GlobeSt.com. Commissioners have not yet formally discussed the plan.
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