Balcones Canyonlands Preserve Still Struggling
With only 2,500 acres to go in the full 30,000-acre Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, Travis Co. has realized that its anticipated dollars won't go far enough fast enough to meet the federally mandated 2016 deadline set by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service under the preserve's permit application
By Kimberly Reeves, Fri., April 27, 2007
Austin and Travis County have diligently gathered land for the federally stipulated Balcones Canyonlands Preserve for at least a decade. With only 2,500 acres to go in the full 30,000-acre preserve, however, Travis Co. has realized that its anticipated dollars won't go far enough fast enough to meet the federally mandated 2016 deadline set by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service under the preserve's permit application.
That means the county is going to have to look for new money, and quickly. It could involve expanding the current tax-increment financing district over the preserve or seeking additional bonds from county voters. At a work session last week, County Judge Sam Biscoe said he would want to take any proposal for financing out to the voters.
"It seems to me we have a whole lot of options to work on," Biscoe said. "Some are going to be a dead end quick, and others are going to require quite a bit of work."
Kevin Connally, who is on the county team that manages the BCP, says the problem is threefold: First, the county dropped its price on participation certificates early on in order to encourage greater landowner participation. Second, the fat federal grants that once fueled major land purchases for the county are dwindling as a growing number of preserves have swallowed up dollars. And, third, the price of land in Western Travis Co. is up, way up. Land that was an average of $5,500 an acre is now $28,000 an acre, a fivefold increase. Connally estimates it would take almost $74 million to complete the preserve or up to $115 million if the county fails to get that land purchased quickly.
That's far more than the city or county has spent on preserve land to date especially the city, which bought its land at fire-sale prices during the collapse of the local real estate market a decade ago. The county won't see all of the necessary funding for another 12 or 13 years, which misses the preserve completion date.
Missing the mark for the BCP is not an option, for either the county or developers. If the preserve is not completed by 2016, the management of the land could revert back to FWS. Developers would have to pull individual permits on development, permits that often take up to four years to complete. Develop-ment would likely grind to a halt in western Travis County, Connally predicted.
The county is not expecting much help from the city, which considers its part done, since it paid to acquire 13,000 acres of the preserve. The county, by comparison, has acquired 5,000 acres but at a much steeper price. Other entities, such as the Audubon Society and the Land Conservancy, manage the balance of the current preserve.
New strategies discussed by commissioners include the conservation easement recently acquired from Concordia University and 819 acres in Steiner Ranch that are still privately owned but managed by Travis County. Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt mentioned the possibility of trusts. And commissioners also talked about expanding the tax-increment financing district to include additional properties that benefit from the preserve but are not located in the preserve area; as those lands increased in value, part of the increased tax revenue would go to additional preserve land purchases.
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