Water-Related News

Lee County will offer $42M for Edison Farms land

Lee County commissioners voted Tuesday to put $42.4 million on the table and begin talks to purchase Edison Farms, a 3,900-acre parcel considered key to conservation efforts in the southeastern section of the county.

County choices on Edison Farms: Buy for $49M, offer $42M, or pass The county's first offer will be almost $7 million less than the landowner's offer to sell the property for $49 million.

The session was the culmination of years of discussion about whether and when the county would move to buy the site, just east of I-75 and south of Corkscrew Road.

"This truly is a legacy opportunity, it has been a long day coming to get to this point," said Jennifer Hecker, executive director of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. "Where we usually spend tens of millions of dollars to repair past mistakes, we have the opportunity to save taxpayers money by averting them."