$400M for county park upgrades nearly spent

Broward County is nearly done spending $400 million on parks and land conservation, 15 years after getting voter approval.

Just $1 million from the bond issue remains free to spend. Another $28 million is unspent but committed to specific projects.

The original vision was to acquire massive tracts for two new regional parks and buy 1,425 acres of parks, open space and conservation lands. The county came close, buying land for one regional park and expansion of a second, and adding 1,145 acres to the public inventory.

Broward leaders said they’re pleased with the results.

“For an urban center like this, with 1.8 million people that live around the area,”

said Broward Parks and Recreation Director Dan West, “the quality of life is enhanced so much by having park space open to the public.”

Because of the parks bond, Broward County slightly exceeded its goal to have at least 3 acres of parkland for every 1,000 people, West said. The requirement was 5,608 acres. Broward now has 6,383 acres, or nearly 3.4 acres for every 1,000 people.

When voters overwhelmingly approved the “Safe Parks and Land Preservation” bond in 2000, it was a race against developers. The county sought to save the few remaining large tracts, and many smaller scraps of land, from construction.

“If it was not for those bond issues, most likely ... these areas would have been developed,” said Doug Young, president of the South Florida Audubon Society.

It was the county’s third major parks bond issue since the 1970s, and likely will be the last to involve vacant land purchases, West said. “In many areas, we’re built out,” he said.

Ninety-eight percent of the developable land in Broward is built on, according to data from the property appraiser. Just 5,630 of the 276,096 developable acres — or 2 percent — is vacant, the data shows.

Half and half

who

works

part- take to complete issue work.

The last potential land purchase, a piece of property on the Middle River in Fort Lauderdale, was discovered to have arsenic contamination, so commissioners nixed the $929,500 deal in May 2014, Danchuk said. A proposed substitute came to nothing when the owner refused the county’s offer.

In addition to that nearly $1 million, Commissioner Lois Wexler has $278,350 in bond funds to spend, Danchuk said. Each commissioner was allowed to direct spending of $1million. Wexler is the last commissioner with money unspent.

Among the 41 projects pending are channel markers on the South Fork of the New River, improvements to Everglades Holiday Park in West Broward, and a dog park and ecocabins for Quiet Waters Park.

By far, the largest project remaining is at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek.

County commissioners in February agreed to focus on the park’s equestrian theme. The county will start over seeking a contractor for a $7 million horse farm and stables Doug Young, president of the South

Florida Audubon Society

Voters hoped to balance Broward’s burgeoning development with open meadows, winding boardwalks, and fresh ballfields. Half the money was to be spent acquiring and renovating parks, and half acquiring conservation lands.

The resulting project tally is lengthy, reaching every corner of the county, and nearly every city. All told, 110 purchases were made in 25 of the 31 cities, plus in the unincorporated area, according to a land preservation document.

On five agricultural properties in Davie and Southwest Ranches, the county bought development rights — but not the land — so they’ll never morph into homes or condos.

The county promised voters two major regional parks. The public got one and a half: the $68 million, 110-acre Central Broward Regional Park, at State Road 7 and Sunrise Boulevard in Lauderhill, and a $15 million, 61-acre expansion to Visa View Park, a former trash dump in Davie.

Scores of parks were improved: Campgrounds were upgraded at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, a nature center and boardwalk were constructed in Long Key Natural Area in Davie, swimming pools were built or improved at parks across Broward.

Young, time in county parks, said the land that’s maintained in its natural state is a gift to wildlife.

“Within those parks, the flora and the fauna, the trees, the insects, the butterflies and spiders, the birds, they are at their home. That is their habitat. It’s a sustainable habitat,” Young said. “And you know, many people don’t even know about them and have never been there. It’s one of the best kept secrets.”

Samantha Danchuk, assistant director of environmental planning and community resilience, whose division handles the conservation half of the bond, said purchases of tree canopy helped the county combat the warming of highly urbanized areas, among other things.

All of the land that was purchased is accessible by the public, officials said.

More to come

County officials said they aren’t sure how long it will

the

bond

“Within those parks, the flora and the fauna, the

trees, the insects, the butterflies and spiders,

the birds, they are at their home. That is their habitat. It’s a sustainable habitat ... It’s one of the

best kept secrets.”

there.

The $400 million was expected to have been spent by now. In 2005, the county announced it was negotiating the last of the land purchases. But deals collapsed or took longer than anticipated. And suitable vacant land became scarce.

No land has been purchased since 2008, county officials said, and there are no prospective sites to buy.

“We would have liked to have spent it sooner,” West said, “but when you look around the nation and how much time it takes to spend these … it takes a great deal of time.”

Meanwhile, property owners are still paying for the $400 million bond issue. The extra tax — which depends on a property’s value — still appears on bills, county Management and Budget Director Kayla Olsen said, and will remain until 2025.

bwallman@tribpub.com or 954-356-4541