Flagler County Clears 1st State Hurdle to Acquire 153 Acres of Summertown for Conservation, Valued at $4.4 Million

A state environmental protection panel on Friday approved adding 153 acres in Flagler County to the Blueway Florida Forever project, making it eligible for state conservation funds to buy the parcel, which belongs to the proposed 545-acre Summertown development just annexed into Flagler Beach. 

The tax-assessed market value of the 153 acres is $4.4 million, according to documentation that went before the state Acquisition and Restoration Council, a 10-member board that evaluates and ranks land acquisition projects for Florida Forever. 

The state program currently has 133 projects on its active list. The Flagler County Blueway is one of the state program’s priorities, but its work plan priority is rated “low.” See the full list of priorities and their rankings here. 

“They met this morning at nine. We were notified around 10:30 that the Florida Forever boundary amendment was approved,” County Administrator Heidi Petito said early Friday afternoon during a negotiating session with Flagler Beach officials on a related matter. The two sides were attempting to resolve conflicts prompted by Flagler Beach’s annexation of Summertown and its sister development, Veranda Bay, on both sides of John Anderson Highway. (See: “Flagler County and City Near Deal to Avoid Annexation Lawsuit But for Last-Minute Conservation Demand on Developer.”)

County Commissioner Andy Dance and Flagler County Public Lands and Natural Resource Manager Erick Revuelta made the trip to Tallahassee and addressed the board. “It was a long trip but a worthwhile experience to be able to provide personal testimony to the importance of the conservation land,” Dance, who has a long association and personal memories of Bulow Creek, said. He has led the effort to bring the land under conservation. “The vote was unanimous in approval, and one of the board members approached me after the meeting was over and thanked me for the personal anecdotes about the property, because all they tend to hear about is bears and bobcats and Panthers and gopher tortoises and not personal stories about the context of the land itself and its importance to the community as a whole.”

One of the issues the negotiators at the Flagler County-Flagler Beach meeting discussed is related to the 153 acres, which Flagler County hopes to buy out of Summertown and place in conservation to protect the headwater of Bulow Creek. The 153 acres form a large, jutting beachhead into conservation land the county already has in its possession. The county is working toward turning that land into the 1,160-acre Bulow Creek Headwaters County Park. Acquiring the 153 acres would create a more contiguously shaped park. (See: “Future 1,160-acre Bulow Creek Headwaters County Park Would Be Almost as Large as Princess Place.”)

“So the state did approve placing this parcel of land onto the Florida Forever list for acquisition, which makes us eligible,” Petito said. “For us, the next steps would be [that] we have to fill out what they consider a triage application to submit for funding. It will require the landowner to commit and to sign, so we’re going to be working on that.” 

The developer, SunBelt Land Management, represented in Flagler County by Ken Belshe, said he is a willing seller and has given the county two years to line up the money to buy the land. Last Friday during the negotiating session, the county sprang a surprise on Belshe, saying that if the land purchase failed, the county would pursue putting a conservation easement on the 153 acres, preempting any housing development. 

While Belshe is willing to sell the land, the easement proposal took him by surprise and drew a sharp, “hard no” from his attorney, Michael Chiumento. Belshe and the county are expected to negotiate that matter further before a Feb. 23 meeting of the County Commission. 

County Attorney Michael Rodriguez said if the county manages to buy the land with Florida Forever funds (along with some local funds out of the county’s own Environmentally Sensitive Lands program), the issue with Belshe would be moot. 

“Our staff was prepared to start filling out the application” for the land acquisition, Petito said, making it “imminent,” as Flagler Beach City Attorney Drew Smith put it. 

“I can’t see it taking longer than the two year commitment. It’ll be less than that,” Petito said.

But there are no guarantees of Florida Forever dollars. For 10 years between 2008 and 2018, the legislature appropriated only a few million dollars a year to Florida Forever (and in three of those years, appropriated zero dollars), compared to annual funding that exceeded $300 million a year from 1990 to 2008. Appropriations have ramped up modestly since 2019, but not to previous levels. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s 2026-27 budget includes a $115 million appropriation for Florida Forever. It is still unclear what amount the legislature will appropriate. 

“The proposal,” background material about the 153 acres presented to the Acquisition and Restoration Council before the vote states, “includes no structures or facilities other than an unimproved road. According to the application, there are several opportunities for resource-based recreation on the property: including paved and unpaved trails, boardwalks, birding, and wildlife observation areas. If acquired, the property would contribute to the surface water protection of Bulow Creek and increase recreational opportunities for the public.”

The document also notes: “The proposal area should be designated as essential.”

The Flagler County Blueway Florida Forever Project includes 4,260 acres with 2,834 acres remaining and is ranked number 27 in the Partnerships and Regional Incentives category on the 2026 ARC Recommended Florida Forever Priority List. The tax assessed value for the remaining acres to be acquired in this project per property appraiser information (2024) is
$347.4 million.