Fernandina Beach Moves to Preserve 28 Acres, Expand Egans Creek Greenway

By Mike Lednovich/Editor

FERNANDINA BEACH - The City is moving to add about 28 acres to its conservation lands, approving up to $240,000 toward the purchase of five properties that would expand the Ron Sapp Egans Creek Greenway.

The North Florida Land Trust will contribute approximately $500,000 toward the roughly $740,000 acquisition, leaving the city responsible for no more than $240,000.

The City Commission voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve a new agreement with the North Florida Land Trust and authorize the purchases. The five vacant parcels are adjacent to conservation property near Sadler Road and would extend a protected corridor through the center of Amelia Island.

The money will come from the city's Land Conservation Trust Fund, which has $256,443 available.

Deputy City Manager Glenn Akramoff told commissioners the agreement puts the city's conservation program back into action after several years of limited activity.

"We have had some money sitting aside being ready to use," Akramoff said. "Now we have a plan to be able to use it."

The city's conservation program dates to 2018. An earlier agreement with the North Florida Land Trust expired at the end of 2023. The new memorandum establishes a framework for identifying properties, conducting due diligence, negotiating purchases and acquiring land for conservation.

The five properties targeted for purchase are:

• Pineland Holdings LLC, 1.01 acres, with no wetlands.

• Sherry Quattlebaum, 8.59 acres, 85% wetlands.

• Eric Kolar PA, 0.74 acres, 60% wetlands.

• Robert J. Holland, listed by the city agenda as 0.66 acres.

• Denton II LLC, 17.29 acres.

The Pineland Holdings property was assessed March 24 at a market value of $780,000, according to the city's agenda materials. Its closing was scheduled for Sept. 18. The Quattlebaum property has a Nov. 27 closing date, while closing dates for the remaining properties had not been set.

The city maps show how the parcels would fill gaps and extend existing conservation land. The largest, the Denton property, is a long-wooded tract running between residential areas near Le Sabre Place and Robert Oliver Avenue. The Quattlebaum parcel is another large, wooded tract farther north, while the Pineland and Kolar properties sit near Sadler Road.  

The North Florida Land Trust would handle much of the acquisition work, including appraisals, surveys, title searches, environmental assessments and negotiations. Under the agreement, land ultimately transferred to the city would carry deed restrictions limiting its use to nature-based recreation, passive parks or open space.

The agreement also gives the land trust a right of first refusal if the city later sought to dispose of protected property.

The five purchases are only the first properties identified under the renewed partnership. The agreement also identifies three potential future conservation projects: a 3.42-acre waterfront parcel owned by Amelia Island Development Company Inc., a 2.74-acre Triangle Investment Limited Partnership property near Jasmine Street and Citrona Drive, and a 1.08-acre property owned by Roy Cook near First Avenue.  

Those three properties were not included in the commission's $240,000 authorization for the five Egans Creek parcels.

Akramoff said the agreement is intended to give the city a continuing mechanism to pursue conservation opportunities as property becomes available.

"This is the main focus of opportunity, but the memorandum of understanding is ongoing," he said. "When we have other opportunities ... we'll be able to explore them."

Commissioner Joyce Tuten, who lives adjacent to the greenway, gave the proposal an enthusiastic endorsement and focused on the greenway's role in absorbing stormwater.

"This item on the agenda almost brought me to tears," Tuten said. She recalled taking a photograph after heavy rains two years ago when water covered the greenway.

"The greenway is a critical piece of flood water absorption for us," she said.

Tuten said conserving undeveloped land will become increasingly important as the city confronts flooding and development pressure.

"How will this island still function as a place to live 200 years from now?" she said. "It won't if we don't do some major land conservation."

She pointed particularly to protecting areas that can store floodwater as well as dunes and riverfront property vulnerable to flooding.

The resolution authorizes city officials to complete the five purchases after required due diligence, negotiations and legal review. It also gives the city a renewed working relationship with the North Florida Land Trust for pursuing other conservation properties through 2031. The commission's $240,000 authorization applies specifically to the five parcels identified for the Egans Creek Greenway expansion.