Although most of the planned town would be in Charlotte County, Kitson still needs to convince Lee County Commissioners to allow more development in the Lee portion before moving forward with his planned town of about 40-thousand people.

Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah says they’re reviewing Kitson’s proposal now…and it stands a pretty good chance of being approved.

Judah says while he would’ve like to see the whole property preserved, saving most of it is a good deal for everyone.

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“You know it’s unfortunate that the state just didn’t step in and work out a deal to purchase the entire 92-thousand acres. It could’ve been done, it wasn’t done. We’re now trying to deal with the next best option. And with 90-percent of the land being set aside to be protected, that’s a good chunk of land.”

Judah says to put it into perspective the amount of land that will be saved if this deal goes through would be twice what Lee County’s been able to set aside for preservation in the past 15 years.

About 14-thousand of the more than 90-thousand acre ranch is in Lee County.