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•Acquisition Cost Share & Property Management Two issues which are important to LAAC staff with respect to all proposed purchases are obtaining cost share assistance in property acquisition and minimizing long term management costs. In this case, staff has successfully resolved both of those issues. Regarding cost share, the state has agreed to purchase the uplands portion of the property as part of its Archie Carr CARL project. Subject to final state approval of the County's Korangy property appraisals, that amount is expected to be $460,000. Consequently, the county's share of the entire site's purchase cost should be only $212,000. As a standard means of furthering this process, a multi-party acquisition agreement between the County and the State has been drafted and approved by State and County staffs. Execution of this multi-party agreement must occur before closing on the property, and that is a condition of the (seller executed) purchase contract. Besides cost share, management cost is always an issue with environmental lands acquisition. For this property, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has agreed to perform all management activities and incur all management costs. USFWS's management of the Korangy property will be an extension of their management of the adjacent Pelican Island and Archie Carr Refuges. A letter committing to entering into a management agreement is attached. •Appraisals During the two year negotiating period for the Korangy tract, property value has been a controversial issue. Since the Trust For Public Lands (TPL) has had a purchase option on the property for the entire negotiation period, staff has negotiated almost exclusively with TPL. In fact, the Acquisition involves TPL exercising its option with Korangy and taking title to the property. The County would then purchase the property from TPL after the County/State multi-party Acquisition Agreement is in place. Prior to TPL obtaining its purchase option, the property owner had listed the property for sale at a price of $3 million. After getting its option, TPL Commissioned a survey of the property and then had the property appraised by W. H. Benson & Company. This was the first of four appraisals prepared for either TPL or the County, and it estimated the property's value at $980,000. To proceed with the Acquisition process and comply with land Acquisition guide requirements, county staff then commissioned two appraisals of the property. These were the Armfield and Jones appraisals. These appraisals estimated the property's value at $1,350,000 and $300,000, respectively. Because of the variation of the two appraisals, county staff scheduled a meeting with both appraisers and TPL's appraiser (Benson). As a result of the unusual characteristics of the Korangy property, establishing an accurate value is difficult. Not only does the amount of wetlands (126 acres) compared to total property acreage (131.5), make appraising the property difficult, but characteristics of the uplands make it even more of a challenge. While the property consists of 5.5 acres of generally contiguous uplands, those uplands border AlA, are bisected by Jungle'Trail, and contain extensive archaeologic resources (shell middens). A further complication was that TPL's surveyor initially identified 15 acres of uplands on the site, instead of 5.5. His determination, however, was based on considering undevelopable mosquito impoundment dikes as uplands. 29 APRIL 18, 1995 J