By Tyler Treadway, TC Palm
The South Florida Water Management District Board of Governors on Thursday morning approved a plan to buy about 1,800 acres of Harmony Ranch, a site west of Hobe Sound where houses and businesses once were proposed, and restore it to a water-cleansing wetland.
The board agreed to spend $17.2 million from the Florida Forever Fund and combine it with $3.2 million from Martin County to make the $20.4 million cost.
The county’s share is from the half-cent sales tax residents paid from 2007 to 2012 to buy land for parks and conservation.
The land is roughly a third of the 4,500 acres of pasture along Bridge Road west of Florida’s Turnpike where Palm Beach developer Otto “Buz” DiVosta once planned to build 4,000 houses and 2 million square feet of business space.
That plan ran into opposition from the Martin County Commission, and DiVosta withdrew the plans in March 2012.
County Commissioner Sarah Heard told the water board Thursday the county “fervently hoped, but always doubted” it would be able to acquire the “iconic parcel” of land and return it to its natural state.
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