A yearslong land preservation saga in Inver Grove Heights has finally come to an end.
The Dakota County Board finalized an agreement last week to buy a conservation easement on property owned by Vance and Darlene Grannis, who have been working for eight years to create a nature preserve and education center on the site.
"This has been a long process," said Al Singer, Dakota County's land conservation manager.
Under the agreement, the county will pay nearly $4 million to acquire a 108.7-acre conservation easement on the 134-acre property. Land preservation funds will cover the bulk of the cost, and county funds will pay for the rest.
Still pending is a $1.3 million award from the state's Outdoor Heritage Fund. It will add to the $1.6 million the county has already received from the fund to make the purchase. If the deal hadn't been reached, the award would have expired at the end of the month.
"We're amazingly on track to meet that timeline," Singer said.
The deal "reflects a significant landowner donation," according to a county document describing the agreement. Vance Grannis, whose family has owned the land since the 1920s, has estimated that it could fetch about $6 million if sold to a developer.
In addition to the cost of acquiring the easement, the agreement includes conditions for how the property can be used and what rights the county has to it. In time, the county may come to own the land or the homestead where the Grannis family now lives.
