A state representative vows to find better ways to tighten up loopholes that threaten the development of conservation land.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The controversial land swap is no longer on the table in St. Johns County.
The application to acquire 600 acres in the Guana River area has been withdrawn. This incident highlighted the need to protect conservation land in Florida more rigorously.
State Rep. Kim Kendall had initially planned a press conference for Tuesday morning to oppose the land swap.
After the land swap application was canceled on Monday, the press conference turned into a small celebration, underscoring the necessity to strengthen laws governing conservation land.
Kendall started at the podium in northern St. Johns County, “First off, I just want to say, we did it!”
There was a roar of applause and a sense of victory at the press conference.
Kendall, local city mayors, St. Johns County commissioners, residents, and even a dog joined in celebrating the halt of a proposed land swap concerning conservation land in the GTM Research Reserve.
St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell told the crowd, “It didn’t happen by accident. It happened because people showed up. Because you cared!”
Monday, a mysterious company called The Upland LLC withdrew its application to get 600 acres inside the Guana River Wildlife Management Area in northern St. Johns County. The application offered the state 3,000 acres in exchange. Those 3,000 acres were in four different counties across Florida.
Monday, the applicant’s attorney stated the intention was not to use the 600 acres inside the Guana Reserve for “commercial or community development.”
However, many residents and lawmakers feared the exchange would open up the 600 acres in Guana to development.
St. Johns County Commissioner Ann Taylor said, “This experience is also a wake-up call. It’s showing us our public lands can be threatened.
So, Kendall’s next steps include pushing the state to buy the 104 acres the applicant owns next to the Guana River Wildlife Management Area. She also plans to propose state legislation to close loopholes regarding threats to conservation land.
“We want to try to button up, to stop this wrap around, this workaround, whatever can be done to try to do this again. We’re going to try to button this down so this doesn’t happen again,” Kendall said.
The Audubon Society was the first to notice last week the land swap item on the agenda of a state meeting. The Audubon Society sounded the alarm.
Chris Farrell told First Coast News, “Several times, it has come down to…if this one person on our staff didn’t read this agenda and didn’t bring this issue out to the public, we would’ve had really poor conservation outcomes for Florida.”
St. Augustine resident Stacy Strumpf helped organize Saturday’s protest against the land swap. She welcomes stricter laws to protect public lands.
“I would support anything that would get us into a position where we don’t find ourselves in a sneak attack position again,” Strumpf said.
Many people here compared this land swap issue with last summer’s proposal to build hotels and golf courses on state parks. Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine is one of those state parks where a large hotel, golf course, and pickleball courts were proposed. The public outcry against it prompted Gov. Ron DeSantis to push pause on those plans.
St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold told the crowd, “To everyone listening out there, especially those in Tallahassee, I hope you are keeping score. Because that’s 2 out of 2 for St. Johns County! And I would caution anyone about coming for us a third time.”
