Top Florida officials will vote Tuesday whether to spend $20.5 million on a 30-acre property at the northern tip of Clearwater Beach, according to an agenda for the upcoming Cabinet meeting.
The property is one the last undeveloped, privately owned swaths of coastal beachfront land in Pinellas County and would expand Caladesi Island State Park, state environmental staffers wrote in a report about the potential purchase.
The land connects with the 357,000-acre Pinellas County Aquatic Preserve and, if bought and managed by the state, would bolster a nearly 20-mile string of protected barrier islands including Honeymoon Island and Anclote Key Preserve state parks.
In a move that’s atypical for state land-buying programs, Florida would also be acquiring a 3,400-square-foot beachfront home built in 1987. The Mandalay Point estate, and its dozens of coastal acres, are currently listed for sale at $37.5 million.
If the deal is approved, it’s not immediately clear what the state would plan to do with the house, or whether it increased the proposed price of an acquisition that would use state money dedicated to strategically buying conversation lands. The public agenda documents do not include property appraisals. The Tampa Bay Times reached out via phone to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection but did not immediately hear back.
A map presented by the state in February showed that the three-bed, three-bath home was within the state’s proposed purchase boundary. Lynetta Griner, a member on the state’s land council, was concerned that the home could raise the price the state would have to pay for the property.
“It’s a great opportunity to have that much undeveloped waterfront,” Griner said during the February meeting. “But to not have the house included, I think that would be ideal.”
In the agenda for the upcoming Cabinet meeting, the state notes that the house, and the land it sits on, “were acquired solely to facilitate the acquisition of the conservation lands.”
If approved, the property would be the first major coastal acquisition in Pinellas County via the Florida Forever program, the state’s flagship conservation land-buying program.
Clearwater’s mayor and other Pinellas leaders have written letters of support for the state’s proposal to buy the property, which includes coastal strand, mangrove swamp and beach dunes. The land’s dune ecosystems could also serve as important habitat for nesting sea turtles and shorebirds.
Buying the property would “ensure that future generations can experience and enjoy Florida’s natural beauty,” Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector wrote last November, urging the state to prioritize the deal.
“This acquisition represents a critical opportunity to protect irreplaceable natural resources while providing lasting benefits to Florida’s citizens and visitors,” Rector wrote.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson, acting as the Cabinet, are slated to meet for a vote at 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Florida Capitol.
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