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project. As a second phase, county staff has mailed offers to +100 individual lot owners within the core project area near the Pelican Island Elementary School. As of the writing of this memorandum, staff has received signed contracts from approximately 408 of the individual lot owners. That percentage combined with the AGC lots, plus 4 lots already owned by the City of Sebastian, represents +608 of the core project area. All but 6 of the 56 AGC lots are located within the core area identified by the FWS. When this matter was brought before the Board in April, AGC indicated that it would sell the total 56 lots only as a bulk sale. Since April, however, staff has continued negotiating with AGC representatives to eliminate from purchase those AGC lots outside of the project core area. Staff has recently received a positive response from AGC that it will eliminate the 6 "outer" lots, subject to a contract amendment approved by AGC, FCT, and the County. Because of potential management difficulties associated with non- contiguous lots, the Board of County Commissioners, at its April 9, 1996 meeting, directed staff to have more discussions with the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to determine the minimum number of lots necessary for the acquisition to succeed as a mitigation project. Subsequently, on April 18, 1996, county staff and the Commission chairman met with FWS staff on this issue. At that meeting, FWS staff indicated that the FWS would not accept only the 56 AGC lots as sufficient mitigation to release the remaining scrub lots in the subdivision for development. FWS staff did indicate, however, that it would further review the project boundaries to determine if any of the overall +180 lots were non-essential to the project. As of the writing of this memorandum, county staff has yet to receive an official written response from the FWS on the subject. However, county staff expect a written reply prior to the July 16, 1996 hearing, and will report to the Board at that time. Another issue discussed at the April Board meeting was the abandonment of undeveloped public rightsr-of-way associated with the 34 AGC lots off Schumann Drive. Staff's finding is that the City of Sebastian is the entity with authority to abandon the rights-of- way, and the City has indicated that it would be willing to do so. Site Characteristics The subject AGC lots consist of scrubby flatwoods, xeric oak scrub, and sand pine scrub in Unit 17 of the Sebastian Highlands. Of the 56 lots, 16 are located in the vicinity of the Pelican Island Elementary School; 34 lots comprise a contiguous block northwest of the school; and 6 lots - proposed to be eliminated from the purchase - are outside of the FWS' core area. The 34 contiguous lots (in Blocks 584, 585, and 586) northwest of the school are scrubby flatwoods with patches of open sand and oak scrub. Most of these 34 lots border "paper" roads that were never built, and consequently 30 of these lots are inaccessible for immediate development. The Fish and Wildlife Service considers this 34 lot area important for acquisition, because the contiguity of the lots provides a good management unit of existing scrub jay territory. The 16 lots in the vicinity of the school are non-contiguous, but are an essential element of the core project area. These 16 lots will be part of a contiguous management unit as the County makes progress in purchasing lots from individual landowners within this area. •Ownership Characteristics Currently, the subject lots are owned by Atlantic Gulf Communities. The tax assessed value of each of the lots ranges from $2,500 to $11,410, depending on the size and accessibility of the lot. •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 addressing management costs. Cost -Share In 1994, Indian River County submitted an application to the FCT, which was subsequently approved for 508 cost -share funding, including 508 of pre-acquisition expenditures (e.g., environmental audit, appraisals). JULY 169 1996 i i BOCK 98Wu 54'1