GALVESTON — The city has joined forces with an environmental education and conservation group to apply for a federal grant to buy undeveloped wetlands and coastal prairie from a developer on the island’s West End.
Last year, the environmental group Artist Boat applied for $11 million in federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money to buy 343 acres of bay-front land from developer Marquette Land Investments.
Gov. Rick Perry rejected the application, even though island leaders and environmentalists flooded his office with e-mails, letters and faxes urging him to save one of the island’s most ecologically diverse tracts.
Ellen Witt, director of the governor’s division of disaster recovery-renewal, did not return a call seeking comment.
Now, Artist Boat and the city of Galveston are working together to secure a $3 million Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program grant, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The grant application was submitted Thursday.
The project was among three nominated by the state’s General Land Office for approval, Artist Boat Executive Director Karla Klay said.
Klay said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will announce the winners of the grant within six to nine months.
Darren Sloniger and his partners at Marquette agreed to provide $3 million in matching land value if Klay and the city get the grant. If that happens, the city would hold the title to one-third of the 343-acre site, which sits east of 11 Mile Road and north of Settegast Road.
Marquette intended to turn the site into a 35-acre marina and residential subdivision. The property is part of a 1,058-acre development that will include a 15-story resort hotel, 4,000 condominiums and houses and an 18-hole golf course.
Sloniger could not be reached for comment.
The city council will have final approval on whether to accept the grant, should the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association award it to the city.
