The Gladys Douglas property near Dunedin is 44 acres of largely untouched forest and rosemary scrub, a wild oasis in a mostly built-out county. Pinellas County and the city of Dunedin are negotiating to buy the parcel and turn it into a preserve, which would add to the 55-acre lake it abuts. Although it appears the outcome will hinge on money, it’s encouraging that an anonymous couple already committed $2 million to the effort.
This is an important initiative that all of Pinellas County should get behind. Preserving this amount of land will be historic and a lasting contribution to future generations.
As with so many real estate deals, the question comes down to just how much the property is worth. Right now, the current owner — the estate of Gladys Douglas — and the city of Dunedin are at odds on that number. The estate’s co-trustee, attorney Nathan Hightower, maintains that the land is worth $14.5 million, the price that developer Pulte Homes initially agreed to pay before pulling out last month. But the city says its offer will be based on appraisals that should be done next month, not what Pulte was once willing to pay. Dunedin’s mayor estimates the offer will come in around $8 million.
The next question is where will the money come from? That appears to be very much up in the air. The city of Dunedin has already earmarked $2 million for the land. And the anonymous gift adds another $2 million. A separate grassroots citizens group, organized through the Pinellas Community Foundation, is accepting individual donations from the community but had only raised $7,100 earlier this month. Pinellas County has $15 million earmarked for land acquisition over the next 10 years, and the Douglas parcel is No. 1 on its list of 60 properties it hoped to acquire. But county officials have not said how much of that they are willing to contribute to buying the property.
The clock is ticking. Hightower has given the city and county first crack at making an offer, but the deadline is in January. After that, he could open the bidding to private buyers. That doesn’t leave much time to organize community support and engage in what could be lengthy negotiations.
What everyone involved should remember, including the charities that will get some of the money from the sale, is that preserving the land would be an investment in our county’s present and its future. That was Gladys Douglas’ dying wish. The outcome of these negotiations will answer an important question about what type of county we want to live in: A place where we can still remember — and visit — wild places or one where we choose to bulldoze over them.
Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Times Chairman and CEO Paul Tash, Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, and editorial writers Elizabeth Djinis, John Hill and Jim Verhulst. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news
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November 30, 2020 at 05:01PM
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What kind of county does Pinellas want to be? | Editorial - Tampa Bay Times
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