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RESOLUTION NO. 2022 - <br />WHEREAS, over thirty local Florida governments, including Indian River <br />County, have enacted land -acquisition f.'nancing programs in past decades, and those <br />conservation programs serve to leverage Florida Forever funding and increase the impact <br />of State land -conservation funding, and <br />WHEREAS, the residents of Indian River County have benefited <br />greatly from the FCT program by receiving matching funds that helped fund twenty-one <br />different acquisition projects while receiving over $25,000,000.00 from the program, and <br />WHEREAS, after years of reglect by the Florida Legislature, the citizens of <br />Florida voted overwhelmingly in 2014 to support the Florida Water and Land Conservation <br />Amendment ("Amendment 1") to restore funding to Florida Forever, and <br />WHEREAS, the Florida State Legislature has continued to underfund <br />Florida Forever specifically, and land conservation generally, despite the passage of <br />Amendment 1 with approval by over 75% of voters, and <br />WHEREAS, the State of Florida experienced the second largest population <br />growth in the country from July 2019 -July 2020, adding over 240,000 new residents, and <br />again experienced the second largest population growth in the country from July 2020 - <br />June 2021, adding another 211,196 residents, which accelerated the pressures of <br />development on environmentally significant lands, and <br />WHEREAS, The Board of County Commissioners for Indian River County <br />has directed staff to present at a future board meeting a resolution approving the <br />placement of a new land conservation bond referendum on the general election ballot in <br />2022. If passed, this new bond will provide a source of funds for Indian River County to <br />purchase environmentally significant lands. As with the previous bonds, the overall <br />2 <br />57 <br />