When the 10-acre island was purchased, the previous owner, trustee Beville S. Outlaw Jr., gave the city a noncash donation of $107,000. That amount will become the required local match. The city will apply for reimbursement of up to $104,822 from the Florida Forever program, which provides funding to acquire environmentally valuable sites.

When the land was purchased, the city paid $100,000 in cash, $18,000 from recreational impact fee credits and $4,822 in appraisal and closing fees. City Manager Lee Feldman said Florida Forever won't give reimbursement for recreational impact fee credits.

The island, planned as part of a Turkey Creek blueway and greenway, won't be developed, Deputy City Manager Sue Hann said. But a trailhead with restrooms, parking, a shelter, bicycle racks, signs and trail maps is planned on land southwest of the island.

Hann said a dredging project paid for by the Florida Inland Navigational District was recently completed in Turkey Creek.

"That should make the area around the island more navigable," she said.

She said the reimbursement grant application is due this month, and a decision is expected in August or September.

The Friends of Turkey Creek acquired a pavilion that city staff then installed, adding a mulched walkway from the pavilion to Briar Creek Boulevard.

"That was a really nice partnership," Hann said.

John Mongioi of the Friends of Turkey Creek praised the island purchase.

"It's important that it always stay natural. Mr. Outlaw owned other land and could have built a bridge with proper permits and developed it," he said.

The city didn't get an $80,000 grant requested of the U.S. Department of Commerce to get rid of the non-native plants on the island, but there have been volunteer efforts to remove Brazilian pepper trees and other pests, Hann said.

Contact Jump at 409-1423 or ljump@floridatoday.com.