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Town Council authorizes signing of conservation easement to protect Frontier Trails Park
Summary
The Town of Southwest Ranches voted to authorize staff to execute a conservation easement ensuring Frontier Trails Park remains preserved open space and wetlands, a requirement tied to prior grant funding and a developer agreement.
The Town of Southwest Ranches council unanimously authorized town officials to execute a joint deed of conservation easement for Frontier Trails Park, formalizing a requirement of prior grant funding that the land remain preserved as open space and wetlands. Town legal counsel explained that the deed formalizes the long-term preservation terms tied to the grant and the town’s prior arrangement with the developer handling wetlands work.
Town attorney explained the background: the town acquired CCA property and negotiated with the developer to move required wetland mitigation work onto Frontier Trails, allowing the developer to retain more developable land while funding wetlands construction at Frontier Trails. The attorney said the developer will maintain the wetland until regulatory authorities accept it, at which point the town will assume maintenance. “Under Florida law, before a municipality can actually purchase property, you have to advertise it in the newspaper, and then you have to bring it to council for approval,” the attorney said while laying out why staff had placed the site under contract and proceeded with due diligence.
Mayor Brad Crews told the council that the site is one of the best locations for a future public safety building and thanked staff for moving the buy-and-due-diligence work forward. Council members had previously discussed the property, and staff told the council the phase 1 environmental review found items requiring a phase 2 investigation because of prior nursery operations; the town will begin that phase 2 environmental work.
Council voted to authorize the appropriate town officials to execute the conservation easement and to continue required due diligence on the fire station site. The motion was carried after a roll-call vote; the transcript records the motion and that it passed but does not provide a detailed member-by-member vote tally.
The council’s action preserves the grant-mandated open-space protections for Frontier Trails and keeps the town on schedule to finalize the property transaction and the town’s plans for the public safety facility.
