DOES THIS KILL POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT ONCE AND FOR ALL?
WHEN STATE OFFICIALS SOLD WISTERIA ISLAND TO POTENTIAL DEVELOPERS – DESPITE THE NAVY’S CLAIM OF OWNERSHIP – THEY MADE NO WARRANTY OF TITLE
by Naja Girard
An extraordinary new twist in the Wisteria Island saga may have driven the “final nail in the coffin” of the moribund development project. The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officially determined that it does in fact own Wisteria Island after all. Not only that, but it’s a part of the Key West National Wildlife Refuge!
About six months ago a claim by environmental group Last Stand triggered an investigation at the BLM as to who really owns Wisteria Island. Last Stand uncovered hundreds of documents including an executive order by President Coolidge reserving Wisteria Island for military purposes.
Interestingly enough, the BLM had previously announced that the federal government did not own Wisteria Island.
“What happened,” says Frankie Morgan, Land Law Examiner at the BLM, Eastern States division, “is that the first determination was made too quickly, without taking into account all of the documentation.
Now that we have done the research, and based on the history of the land, we have completed our Federal Ownership Determination and we have concluded that Wisteria Island is federal land. It is now under the jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. ”
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