- May 12, 2026
The purchase of several properties being eyed for conservation in Marineland and The Hammock may soon be underway.
A 35-acre property in Marineland that was scouted by the Flagler County Environmentally Sensitive Land program is going to be split into two properties, with Flagler County only purchasing half and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Forever Program purchasing the other half. At the Flagler County Land Acquisition Committee’s May 11 meeting, Public Lands and Natural Resource manger Erick Revuelta said the 35-acre property Flagler County was eyeing would cost much more than the county could afford.
While appraisals are confidential, he said, they were expecting about the price to be roughly $500,000 per acre.
“It came out to be a lot more than that,” Revuelta said. “I mean, it blew my mind.”
The property is owned by JDI Marineland, a major landowner in The Hammock, and includes a marina and an existing wastewater treatment plant. Flagler County, the FDEP and the University of Florida, on behalf of the Whitney Lab in Marineland, have been in negotiations to purchase property from JDI Marineland for months.
Instead of giving up the purchase, Revuelta and the ESL staff reached out to the FDEP to see if there was interest in purchasing part of the property. The FDEP agreed to purchase the marina portion of the property while Flagler County purchased the wastewater plant portion, which has maritime hammock on site.
Fortunately, Revuelta said, FDEP’s agreement reduced the county’s financial responsibility significantly.
“We’ve made an offer that was based on the appraisals,” Revuelta said. “That offer has been verbally accepted. Once we have a purchase agreement, we will present that to the LAC.”
Staff still has to go through several more assessments and the purchasing agreement process. Should the LAC recommend moving forward with the purchase agreement, it will then be reviewed by the Flagler County Commission.
The Flagler County Commission has the final say on all the recommendations from the LAC.
The Marineland 35 property is not the only land Flagler County is eyeing for conservation in The Hammock. The LAC will also recommend the Flagler County Commission acquire the conservation easement for another property known as the Lastinger property — 39 acres of land located between State Road A1A and the Intracoastal — for $3.25 million.
“That's going to protect roughly 26 acres of coastal strand and coastal soil communities,” Revuelta said.
Another 21 acres of property, directly adjacent to the Lastinger property along the intracoastal, is also in negotiations for a conservation easement with Flagler County. This Cedar Point property contains one of the last unprotected tracts of high-quality maritime hammock. It is owned by the DuPont family and has several imperiled species as well as the family cemetery and a family-owned cabin.
Conservation easements are not open to the public. Revuelta said the county is still working with the DuPont family to figure out what the family wants to keep and what would be included in the easement.
All three Hammock properties are on the Priority A list for purchasing. Also on the A List are four other properties, including, until recently, 3,800 acres of land near Daytona North and two properties with the Florida Agricultural Museum in northwest Flagler.
The 3,800 acres was purchased in April and will be the site of the future Big Cypress Swamp Nature Preserve in Flagler County. The Agricultural Museum properties, Revuelta told the LAC, have hit a snag in discussions as the Florida Agricultural Commissioner wants to place an additional conservation easement on top of the easements already on the property.
The LAC voted to remove the Museum properties to the Priority B List until the issue is resolved, leaving two openings on the A List. The LAC moved a 519-acre property in west Flagler County to the A List alongside a new, 2,238-acre property near the Haw Creek Preserve.
This property, known as the Orange Hammock property, has a large section of flood plain, Revuelta said and would also be purchased for a conservation easement, pending commission approval. The recommended changes will be reviewed by the Flagler Commission for approval.
