By Henry Stephens
staff writer
November 17, 2005

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Steady increases in land values in recent years finally put appraisals of a Boca Raton woman's 64.7 acres within reach of her asking price for conservation land on the Indian River Lagoon, county officials say.

"We were able to come to terms the (Leona) Diamond people would accept — and the value was supported by appraisals," county Environmental Planning Chief Roland DeBlois said Wednesday.

He spoke a day after the County Commission, in a 5-0 vote, agreed to pay $2.75 million in environmental bonds to Diamond to exercise an option on her property on the lagoon, south of Oslo Road.

The property is the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, DeBlois said, enlarging the 400-acre Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area with additional riverfront land.

DeBlois said the county first looked at the property in the 1990s for a possible purchase, along with the St. Johns River Water Management District, but said the Diamonds and the county couldn't agree on a price.

At the time, he said, county-hired appraisers gave values of $130,000 and $215,000, a 65 percent difference. He said the county would have made an offer of $156,000, or 120 percent of the lower value.

"Back then, they (appraisers) raised the question, from a conservative approach, 'Are these sovereign lands?' that led to lower appraisals," DeBlois said.

The state owns the bottoms of public waterways. Sovereign, or state-owned, submerged lands can't be developed by law, he said. So they wouldn't have been valued highly on the market.

The property mostly is estuarine wetlands or submerged grass beds, DeBlois said. But this time, the current pace of growth prompted appraisers to assume that at least part of the land could be developed.

They gave estimates based on the eight acres along the western boundary being developed for four lots, he said. And they arrived at much higher estimates.

Armfeld-Wagner Appraisal and Research Inc. of Vero Beach estimated the property to be worth $2.8 million, while Wingo & Associates Inc. of Altamonte Springs gave a value of $2.85 million, records show.

The Diamonds had an option to sell the land to JCL Investment Group Inc. of West Palm Beach for $2.5 million, records show. The Diamonds chose the county's greater offer.

DeBlois said the county's offer of $2.75 million is 96 percent of the higher appraisal.

The county's net payment, however, could shrink to $1.4 million if the Florida Communities Trust approves a grant to reimburse the county for 50 percent of the cost.

While the county hasn't been awarded the grant, he said, he was confident it would be successful because the Diamond land is already surrounded by county conservation areas.

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