Following a unanimous vote at Tuesday's Sarasota County Commission meeting, the county is set to buy 341 acres that are currently home to Albritton Fruit Farms and are adjacent to the county's Central County Solid Waste Disposal Complex in east Sarasota. The county's goal with the purchase is to help manage future needs for soil procurement at the complex.

Back in 2004, the county and Albritton Groves Ltd.—the Albritton family's landowning entity—signed a contract for the sale and purchase of approximately 1,000 acres for the waste complex, an agreement that included a first-right-to-purchase option for any adjacent lands. Years later, in 2022, the county was notified of Albritton's plan to sell the additional 341 acres, located at 9665 S.R. 72 in Sarasota.

The public hearing portion of Tuesday's meeting on the topic saw no public speakers, despite concerns from residents of the nearby Skye Ranch, Saddle Creek, Saddle Oak and Gator Creek residential communities about potential noise and heavy cargo traffic.

The new land is not slated to become a landfill. Instead, the property will provide soil for covering waste at the county landfill, located just south of the farm. Covering landfill waste with soil is a longtime strategy that mitigates pests, lessens potential odors for nearby residents and weighs down flyaway litter, according to Jamie Carson, Sarasota County's communications director. The county plans to issue revenue bonds to cover $17.95 million of the $19 million total purchase price. The bonds will be paid back over 15 years, using money from disposal service fees and other sources.

The original landfill has more than 50 years of capacity remaining, and procuring soil from the adjacent land will save residents up to $50 million over roughly 27 years, according to the county. The move will also keep more dump trucks off public roads because there will be no need to import soil from other sites.

"Without a place to excavate from, we have to outsource from a different location, which requires more trucks for transportation and incurs more expenses with external contracts for soil from elsewhere," says Carson.

As for noise, Carson says that internal roads will be buffered and not border the nearby communities.

The land purchase should be finalized by early September and, although the immediate use will be for soil, future plans may see the acreage "used in other ways to benefit the community," says Carson. "We’ll also be reaching out to the community to share project details as we move forward."

For questions, dial 311, click here or follow along here for upcoming updates on the project.