Kinggrove owners urge quick action, point to state matching money for mixed conservation deal

Hugh Kent, representing Kinggrove Organic Farm Inc., told the committee the 200-acre organic operation has long provided community trails and functions as an aquifer recharge area, and he urged the advisory committee to consider the parcel for conservation before development occurs.

“We're getting to the end of the options... this is probably the last shot we've got,” Kent said, describing prior attempts to place the property into conservation and noting the time-sensitive nature of state funding. Staff acknowledged the potential for a mixed approach — fee-simple purchase of some acreage coupled with a conservation easement on farmed acreage — and said county staff has submitted a letter to the state program noting the farm’s application.

Bill Ray, an environmental consultant who has worked in Lake County, described the parcel as exceptional: “It is probably the most diverse, complex, sustainable Xeric scrub that I've seen in Lake County and in Central Florida,” he told the committee, praising the site’s intact plant communities and seed-collection potential.

Committee members asked staff to seek further information from the owner on asking price and the feasibility of a hybrid funding approach with the state Rural & Family Lands program; staff agreed to contact the owner and to present property-card details at the July 30 meeting.