The controversy over the potential development of Creek Ranch near Lake Hatchineha has taken an unexpected turn.\n<\/p>\n
Owner Harold Baxter has applied for consideration to seek the state’s purchase of a conservation easement over the property.\n<\/p>\n
His application is scheduled to be discussed by the state’s Acquisition and Restoration Council when it meets Dec. 8 in Tallahassee.\n<\/p>\n
The property lies in a corridor that contains thousands of acres of public and private conservation lands north and south of the ranch.\n<\/p>\n
Marian Ryan, conservation chair for Sierra’s Ancient Islands Group, plans to testify in favor of the proposal.\n<\/p>\n
The property has been the subject of intensive public discussion after the longtime cattle ranch was purchased by Baxter, a local developer, and was announced as the site of a housing development and a new high school.\n<\/p>\n
Area residents objected to putting a new high school in what they contend is an important wildlife corridor. There have been documented sightings of Florida panther and Florida black bear nearby.\n<\/p>\n
Residents and at least one area property owner have proposed alternate school sites. School officials are evaluating the proposals.\n<\/p>\n
Obviously, if the conservation easement purchase occurs, the ranch would no longer be available for a school site because the state would have purchased the development rights and school officials would be forced to look elsewhere.\n<\/p>\n
Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The controversy over the potential development of Creek Ranch near Lake Hatchineha has taken an unexpected turn. Owner Harold Baxter has applied for consideration to seek the state’s purchase of a conservation easement over the property. His application is scheduled to be discussed by the state’s Acquisition and Restoration Council when it meets Dec. 8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gci"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientislands.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}