Stuart is creating a committee to identify and prioritize undeveloped properties that could be acquired for conservation, drawing on the model of Martin County Forever.
Commissioner Merritt Matheson helped spearhead Martin County Forever in 2024. He said the Stuart program is intended to apply a similar approach within the city.
"The intent of this program is a mini Martin County Forever and the goal with Martin County Forever as the desire with City of Stuart is to look at every single undeveloped property in the City of Stuart and then have a committee rank them," he said. "64% of residents in Martin County voted to tax themselves with the main intent of that referendum to acquire conservation land to protect our water quality."
The committee will have seven members. City commissioners will select five members, while city staff will choose two at-large members.
Stuart environmental attorney Ruth Holmes said the at-large positions are intended to bring specific expertise to the committee.
"The two at-large members, we're proposing that there be one at-large member that has a background in environmental sciences, an academic background in environmental sciences, and the other to be a current licensed Florida realtor," she said.
The city will receive $2.7 million annually to acquire properties. The committee will identify potential properties and rank them using a rubric measuring the environmental impact of the land.
Matheson said the city could have more potential properties than it can acquire with its annual revenue and raised the possibility of using bonds to increase the amount of land it can purchase.
"I can tell you work sitting down with Ruth and Jody, there are well more properties than we're going to be able to acquire and I will say up here now I am certainly open to bonding the expected revenue to a certain percentage to acquire more of them now at market rate once the committee gets formed," Matheson said.
Commissioner Campbell Rich said the timing of the program makes it particularly important as the city considers future environmental challenges.
"This is so timely, this opportunity. I mean we live in historic times here," he said. "It's been 117 years since we went through a hurricane season and we haven't had a hurricane in the Atlantic basin and I wouldn't be reassured by that."
Rich said the city has an opportunity to address potential challenges before they become more difficult to manage.
"The challenges we're going to face with stormwater management are very significant and if we don't make an educated commitment to sustainability and resiliency, we're going to be cleaning up the mess," he said.
Matheson said the committee's initial work could be completed relatively quickly, while negotiations with property owners are expected to take longer.
"That process should be done relatively quickly with a few meetings or so depending how many parcels they come up with. The longer process is the negotiation of acquisitions. The committee will move through its task in hypothetically a few meetings," he said.
The committee plans to negotiate with multiple property owners simultaneously to help move acquisitions forward.
The Stuart City Commission agreed to name the new committee Sustainable Acquisitions of Lands Tomorrow, or SALT.