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Alachua County to seek state partnership for agricultural easements while protecting enforcement rights
Summary
After public comment from landowners and conservation groups, the Alachua County Commission voted unanimously to pursue a negotiated partnership with the state27s rural and family lands program while pressing to retain or secure secondary enforcement rights and offering up to a 25% county cost share where appropriate.
Alachua County commissioners voted unanimously to direct staff to continue negotiating partnership terms with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services27 Rural and Family Lands program, while pressing for enforceable protections for county-funded conservation easements.
The motion, made by a commissioner during the meeting, asked staff to pursue negotiated agreements that would (1) allow county participation on properties on the active acquisition list, (2) seek a secondary right of enforcement if FDACS does not enforce within a defined period, (3) consider a county contribution up to 25 percent on some partnership projects as a title-only option, and (4) continue pursuing other state and federal funding opportunities and advocacy to improve ranking criteria.
Andy Chrisman, Alachua County27s Land Conservation Program Manager, told the commission the county27s Alachua County Forever program has three main functions including fee-simple land acquisition and management and the newly established agricultural land protection strategy. Chrisman said the county submitted nine properties to FDACS this cycle and that the USDA NRCS program had also been pursued; he noted that federal scoring emphasizes recent farmland loss, which hurt Alachua County27s ranking.
Conservation groups and landowners gave contrasting but complementary reasons to act. "If we can't enforce it, we shouldn't fund it," said Sarah Younger of the Sierra Club Suwannee St. Johns, urging that county dollars not be spent where local inspection and enforcement authority would be absent. Landowners and brokers at the meeting, including Dean Saunders, described hundreds or thousands of acres on the county27s acquisition lists and urged the commission to take advantage of the state funding now available.
Staff described two FDACS models the state has used: one where the state holds title and grants the partner a third-party enforcement right, and a second option that grants co-grantee status but defers enforcement authority to the state. County legal advice cited in the meeting said the county27s surtax ballot language requires some form of property interest before surtax funds may be used, which shaped commissioners27 caution about title versus enforcement-only structures.
The commission27s approved direction sends a clear, conditional signal: the county will keep negotiating with the state to secure enforcement protections and, where the county accepts fewer rights, set funding limits or pursue county-only easements instead. The board also asked staff to continue pressing state and federal partners for program and ranking changes that could improve Alachua County projects27 competitiveness.
Next steps: staff will pursue the negotiations and return to the board with recommended agreements, and the county will continue to evaluate both state partnership offers and county-funded easement acquisitions.
