Top Florida officials approve 340 acre purchase from luxury golf developers

Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General James Usmier and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson voted to greenlight the purchase of Hernando County’s 340-acre woodland for conservation Tuesday morning.

Seller: A luxury golf resort called Cabot Citrus, a year ago, to reduce the same forest by acquiring more than 300 acres of preserved public land and adding it to its property. Unlike previous proposals, however, Tuesday’s vote is a simple purchase rather than a deal, meaning the nation will add acres to the conservation site without replacing them in return.

After the Tampa Bay Times revealed the proposed land exchange in August, it expanded the outrage of the already extracted public anger over the DeSantis administration’s plans for public land, including proposals for golf courses and hotel developments in state parks.

Cabot Citrus quietly retracted the proposal, The Times reported earlier.

DeSantis did not address purchases from Cabot Citrus before the Florida Cabinet vote in Tallahassee on Tuesday, despite his support of purchasing other conservation lands included in the agenda.

After the meeting, Simpson issued an unusually long statement praising the purchase of the land and hinting at criticism of the previous proposed swap.

“When this property was first discussed in a different context, there were a lot of questions.

“The process worked exactly. We paused, looked at alternatives and finally we reached a better path. We reached a path that served Florida and its people in the long term benefits,” he said.

Simpson voted last year to move forward with the Cabot Swap. However, his office said that his vote was a vote for “possibility of land exchange,” which still required approval from another Land Acquisition Council.

In a statement Tuesday, Simpson admitted a broader course reversal and praised Cabot’s “willingness to change focus and prioritize conservation.”

“This is how conservation should work in Florida. It’s measured, informed and rooted in the public interest,” Simpson added.

The governor first defended the land swap last year when asked about it by the Times Reporter. However, on Tuesday, the governor’s office issued a news release celebrating all the land acquisitions the Cabinet voted to approve, including the Cabot parcel.

In addition to the plot before Tuesday’s vote, the governor was photographed on May 18 with head of Florida’s wildlife agency Rodney Barrett, wearing a hat that appears to be the Cabot Citrus logo during a golf round. Barreto then posted a picture on Facebook.

The land the state is currently planning to purchase is located southeast of Cabot Citrus’ existing operations, featuring multiple 18-hole courses and a suite of cottages for purchases of nearly $1.7 million.

The facility is adjacent to the forests of withlacoochee, the same habitat that the Cabinet gave early approval to trade with golf companies last year. In exchange, Cabot had committed to giving the state a major 861-acre cedar Timberland to the unclear conservation value Timberland.

After Tuesday’s vote, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is currently tasked with implementing the potential purchase.

It is not yet clear how much state money will be used to buy the land. The proposal does not list how valuable the land is and should still be evaluated.

“The state will not exceed the approved value determined by the assessment,” Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Alexandra Kuccita said in a June 3rd statement.

In a May 5 letter, Florida Forest Director Rick Dolan wrote that if a transaction is made, his agency will accept management of property “which will increase the ecological value of the state’s forests.”

Dolan has spoken about his letter to Curry Dehaven, the state’s director of public lands for the past eight years. She suddenly resigned last month, but yet another public land dispute has sparked anger between Floridians and lawmakers. The Department of Environmental Protection has scheduled a last-minute meeting to vote for another land exchange in which 600 acres of native wildlife will be presented with a mysterious private presence.

Established earlier this year, Upland LLC retracted its proposal on May 19 amid a surge in bipartisan opposition, including President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wills.

After a recent public land controversy, including a proposal from the DeSantis administration to develop Florida’s award-winning state parks, environmental groups have maintained skepticism about the latest push to buy this latest Cabot land.

Eugene Kelly, a Hernando County resident and president of the Florida Indigenous Plant Association, said “it’s great that there’s an addition of land to the national forest,” but it’s hard to know the true reason behind the face.

Last week, Kelly asked legislative leaders to fund Florida’s state land acquisition program and provide at least $100 million in funding for the next fiscal year, at least $100 million after House negotiators failed to propose new money for the program.

“We see all of these mixed signals coming from the state,” Kelly said. “But what we saw is that the public is coming out and saying they support the conservation of the land. They certainly protect these places.”

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