Nassau County Taxpayers buying conservation land at a premium

Is the city of Fernandina Beach seriously offering (With NFLT) $675k to buy property that the owner purchased for $475k just a year ago (July 2019)?   This is a 42% premium.  I’m being told that there was an appraisal and all is good.  Property values are up.  The previous owner got a good deal.

This week’s Fernandina Beach city Agenda:  Section 8, Item 6

6 OPTION AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE – PHEASANT RUN, LLC – RESOLUTION 2020-169 APPROVING AN OPTION AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE OF APPROXIMATELY 5.35 ACRES OF VACANT LAND ADJACENT TO EGANS CREEK GREENWAY FOR THE PUBLIC PURPOSE OF CONSERVATION OR PASSIVE PARKS; AUTHORIZING EXECUTION; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Synopsis: Approves the Option Agreement for Sale and Purchase for the purchase price of $675,000 with Pheasant Run, LLC for the acquisition of vacant land near Egans Creek Greenway for conservation. 

  • Why is the City Manager presenting this to the city commission for approval?
  • Why are the Tree Conservancy groups not up in arms that the city is paying a 42% premium on property?
  • Why is Rick Keefer/Pheasant Run LLC seeking to make a quick profit of $200k in one year from the City Conservation tax fund that is used to purchase this property?  He is making a good deal for himself while the city takes it in the shorts.
  • Why is the city not making a new list of properties that have not been promoted as “city wants to overpay for these properties”. 
  • Has anyone looked at the economics of taking this property off of the tax rolls?  Here are some rough estimates.

·        $675k  Initial inflated cost

·        $400k  Lost tax revenues (city)-10 years @ 40k/yr (perpetuity) (plus lost county taxes)

·        $100k  Ongoing maintenance cost-10 years at $10K/yr (perpetuity)

=  $1,175,000   Full cost of the property

 I know that property values are going up, but 42% in one year for land does not seem fair.   The city and the NFLT are setting a bad precedent on buying conservation property for a strong premium. For those city taxpayers and NFLT contributors who put funds in to buy property, we should all be concerned with how our money is being spent.

Let’s save trees!  But, lets not squander the money on fewer acres bought at a huge premium.

Jack Knocke is Eye’s newest Contributor and will focus on our expansion into the Fernandina Beach and Nassau County area. He has been thrust into the political activist role as he observed major issues with how the City of Fernandina Beach is governed.  Earlier this year, Jack along with several others founded Common Sense Fernandina Beach.  CSFB has been referred to as a watchdog group.  It’s a group of citizens who are interested in ensuring transparency, smart spending, control of taxes and preservation of a quality way of life on the island.  Jack has been an entrepreneur in telecom and technology for many years – most recently focused on developing new distribution models for Telecom, IT and the Internet of Things.  He has worked as an entrepreneur in Verizon and in fast growing startups.  He is currently a consultant helping IT businesses transition into new technologies.  We are happy to have Jack on board and look forward to bigger developments with Eye on Nassau County coming soon.

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