Conservation Collier’s plans to purchase Pepper Ranch in Immokalee for environmental preservation moved forward Monday with unanimous support.

The 2,500-acre tract would be the program’s biggest purchase, at $33.2 million, down from the previously determined cost of $36.3 million.

The cost of the land exceeds the amount available in Conservation Collier’s budget for fiscal 2008. The balance stands at just more than $19 million and the total cost of tracts remaining on the acquisition list is $13.3 million, which would leave less than $6 million in the budget.

Taxes are levied yearly on Collier County property owners to support the preservation fund. Money would be borrowed or bonded to pay for Pepper Ranch.

Collier County commissioners are scheduled to make a final decision on buying Pepper Ranch at their July 22 meeting.

The decline in the property’s cost came after appraisers took another look at the land and subtracted stewardship credits from the initial appraised value.

The credits, from a 985-acre portion of the ranch, were awarded to the owners under the county’s rural land stewardship program, which aims to help preserve land.

“Something has been taken away from that land, which is the ability to develop it,” Conservation Collier Coordinator Alexandra Sulecki said. “We don’t want to develop it, but the fact is that the value is affected by that, so we asked the appraisers to take that into consideration.”

The acquisition cost of $33.2 million was determined by averaging two independent appraisals, one for $34.2 million and one for $32 million.

The Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Council on Monday also changed a portion of the proposal that would have allowed the current owners to retain oil, gas and mineral rights. Those rights are included in the appraised value of the land and will not remain under the control of the current owner after the sale.

Lake Trafford Ranch LLLP, which has owned the ranch since 2005, includes engineering firm Hole Montes President Tom Taylor and Allen Concrete owner Chris Allen. Also included in the partnership are Gene Hearn, grandson of the ranch’s namesake, and Hearn’s mother, Joyce.

Under conditions of the sale, the current owners would clear all structures on the property except the lodge, caretaker house and a barn near Lake Trafford.

Owners would be responsible for pumping out, crushing and filling all septic tanks on the property except those needed for the remaining buildings.

They would remediate any soil and groundwater contamination related to an above-ground diesel fuel tank to state-required levels and would hire a consultant to determine the level of contamination from an abandoned cattle dipping vat and pay for the cleanup.

Council member Michael Delate expressed his concern about the cost of maintaining the property after the purchase.

“One of the issues we had is the ongoing maintenance of the property,” he said, adding that the cost of maintenance would add about 15 percent to the expected $33.2 million to buy the land.

Sulecki said money for the purchase would be borrowed and that funds are already set aside for maintenance.

“The money to purchase it would come from a bond or some other vehicle of borrowing money, and the money to maintain it will come from our current reserves for maintenance, and we do have that,” she said.

Purchasing the land would allow the county to preserve an area that is home to a host of wildlife, including panthers, black bears and other threatened species.

“You have before you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Amber Crooks of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said to the council. “It’s so valuable for so many reasons.”

The purchase also affords the possibility that the county could use the property as a mitigation bank to meet state and federal environmental permitting requirements for road and utility projects.

Sulecki said this is just an option and is not necessarily being planned.

“It’s a potential benefit of Pepper Ranch,” Sulecki said. “The intent of bringing it out was to explore all the ways that the acquisition of Pepper Ranch could possibly serve the county.”