Green PLACE acquires 28-acre Winter Garden property

The Green PLACE Program recently acquired a 28-acre property in Winter Garden for conservation purposes. 

The Wintersweet property is located at Fourth Street, Winter Garden, is accessed by Lake Johns Circle.

Green PLACE is a land acquisition and conservation program created 36 years ago. It is focused on preserving, enhancing and restoring environmentally sensitive lands within Orange County.

According to Andrew Bray, environmental program supervisor, the Green PLACE evaluated the Wintersweet property in 2023, assessing it for water quality, habitat conservation, rarity of habitat and ability for the public to recreate on it. 

The property consists mostly of wetlands, Bray said, with nearly 20 acres of marshes. 

“There’s also a little bit of hardwood forest in there as well,” Bray said. “That property ties in closely with water-quality protection. These properties help with water conservation and wetland protection.”

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wetlands are considered rare and globally threatened, meaning it met criteria to acquire the land for the Green PLACE Program. 

Beyond that, the program found the acquisition would provide water resource protection, aquifer recharge and floodplain storage, while also closing gaps between other publicly owned lands. 

The Wintersweet property was acquired for $1.9 million as part of a bigger initiative dating back to 2021, when Orange County awarded the program $100 million to double the amount of conservation lands in its care, about 23,000 acres at the time. 

Once the Wintersweet property was assessed, Bray said the Green PLACE’s real-estate department reached out to the landowner with an interest letter.

“If they’re a willing resident, then we move through the appraisal process,” he said. “It’s a very drawn-out process; it’s a lot of communication with the landowner, but the program is all willing-seller based. We don’t do any forced acquisitions.” 

At the moment, Bray is unsure if the property will open up to the public. 

“We’re going to assess the property for its feasibility to open up to the public, but we have not started that assessment yet,” he said. 

Even if the property does not open to the public for recreational purposes, Bray said Winter Garden residents still will benefit from having the city’s land conserved and wildlife protected. 

“Our ultimate goal is to keep conservation lands in conservation and if possible, open it for the public to recreate on,” he said. “But at the core of our program is land conservation, water quality protection and wildlife corridor protection.” 

Once the acquisition was made public in December, residents flooded the comments thanking the program for its efforts to preserve land, some claiming it “a breath of fresh air,” encouraging more of the same.