Waterfront property becomes the first to be conserved with Manatee County referendum funds

The Crooked River Ranch, one of the last privately owned parcels on the Manatee River, is the first to be protected under a new conservation fund approved by Manatee County voters in 2020.

The 64-acre property boasts waterfront views of the northern Manatee River shoreline in Parrish, about halfway between Interstate 75 and Ft. Hamer Road in an area where open tracts of land are often sold for development. The Hunter family instead set their sights on conservation after about 30 years of ownership.

The property was sold to Manatee County on Feb. 12 for $11.2 million, leveraging funds from a voter-driven referendum to create a new tax dedicated to environmental conservation purposes approved in 2020.

County officials agreed to give staff the ability to close on the deal during a public meeting in December, where preliminary concept plans for a public park on the property were also revealed. The park would include trails, a pavilion, a kayak launch, a parking area, restrooms, and about three acres of space for recreational use.

Crooked River Ranch co-owner Elizabeth Skidmore pitched the property as one of several under consideration for conservation funds to county commissioners during a public meeting last August.

"My late father and mother held a deep affection for this old Florida property with its natural beauty and riverfront location," she said last year. "For my father, he's had it since the '70s. This place was his therapy. His place to unwind and commune with nature. It would be a treasured legacy to see it shared with others."

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The 2020 referendum made it possible to conserve the land and open it to the public, said Debi Osborne, Director of Land Protection for the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast. The organization helped facilitate the process on behalf of the family.

Osborne hopes to see more properties in Manatee County take similar footsteps toward long-term protection.

"The timing was perfect because of the county fund," Osborne said. "But for that money being available, this property probably would have been sold for development."

"There are a lot of wonderful properties out east in Manatee County that should be conserved, and waterfront property is becoming so rare that when these opportunities become available it's imperative that conservation organizations move quickly otherwise they will be lost forever," she said.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Crooked River Ranch sold to Manatee County for conservation