Collier County commissioners approved a plan to purchase 1.5 miles of railway for a new recreational trail.
Most of the more than $11.6 million will come from the Conservation Collier fund.
This purchase is part of the larger Bonita-Estero Rail Trail (BERT) project spanning both Collier and Lee counties.
The decision to use conservation funds sparked debate among commissioners and environmental groups.
Plans for a major walking and bicycling trail in Southwest Florida are one step closer to reality.
On March 10, Collier commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of finalizing the county’s purchase of about 24 acres — or about 1.5 miles of the Seminole Gulf Railway — to be included in the first phase of a new recreational trail.
Extending into Lee County, the trail, known as BERT (Bonita-Estero Rail Trail), has been years in the making.
After debate, Collier commissioners agreed to fund virtually all of the county’s land purchase with money from Conservation Collier, a voter-approved, taxpayer-funded program established in 2003 to acquire and preserve environmentally sensitive lands.
Some of the money for the county’s purchase — a little over $245,500 — would come from road impact fees for a necessary extension of Veterans Memorial Boulevard.
The contract with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, which is brokering the land purchase from the Seminole Gulf Railway, will come back to the county commission for a final vote soon.
The cost to acquire the county’s part of the land: More than $11.6 million.
The first phase of the project is 11.4 miles, starting in North Naples, near Wiggins Pass Road, and running north through Bonita Springs and Estero.
As a representative for North Naples, Collier Commissioner Chris Hall has served as a liaison for the project and has been involved in the negotiations for the land.
Other than the road impact fees, Hall recommended 100% of Collier’s funding come from Conservation Collier, saying the purchase would be of great public benefit, and that everyone he’d talked to about it in the community, including in church and on the tennis court, agreed it was a good use of the money generated by the program.
