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Jeanenne Clark didn’t want to sell her home.

She lived on a 5-acre plot of land in east Bonita with only a handful of neighbors.

She’d see wild turkey, alligators and various birds from her window. A pole barn dotted the landscape, and it abutted a canal. Four-wheelers combed the area and a nursery was rumored to be built down the road. It was also a place with a lot of memories.

The open floor plan of her two-bedroom, two-bath house was just a portion of the place she called home since the early 1980s with her husband, James Clark, who passed away in the early 1990s. Clark’s mother lived in a mobile home on the property until she passed away, also before Clark sold her property.

Everything changed in 1999. Though Clark had found solace with her long-time significant other Don Brown, it was time to give up piece of paradise.

Clark received notice that the South Florida Water Management District needed her property, as well as 4,665 other acres in east Bonita for restoration of waterflow. It basically spelled out eminent domain for her and her neighbors.

According to a Daily News report in July 2008, district officials are now proposing to sell a portion of the acreage bought, stating its not needed for the flood reduction project anymore, and to garner more funding to purchase additional land for the CREW project.

“We’re not the type of people that want to sue everyone in the world, but it’s about what’s right,” Brown said.

Bill Moore of the Brigham Moore law firm has represented about 30 owners in the area for almost a decade. While others threaten lawsuits, Clark is waiting to see how it all shakes out.

The project, titled Southern CREW, won a few battles in circuit court where district officials testified that the project required every bit of the 4,770 acres it sought. Some people refused to sell and still occupy their homes in that area.

District spokesperson Susan Sanders explains further that the 951 road alignment between Kehl Canal and the proposed C.R. 951 road extension, is blocking waterflow.

“Essentially, the water flow kind of gets stuck by the 951 road alignment,” Sanders said. “There’s no need to purchase this land for this project.”

Although it’s a small chunk of land (about 240 acres) already purchased in the C.R. 951 extension area compared to the 3,770 acres already owned by the state. Because the district has run out of money for the Souther CREW project, they’re hoping to swap or sell that land to purchase acreage farther east they say is more needed for Southern CREW. District officials have said the land is worth around $6.8 million.

Families uprooted in east Bonita from the buyout, and their attorneys cried foul play in mid-July when the district first announced they would send a letter to Lee County Conservation 20/20 to see if they had an interest in buying the non-critical parcels already purchased by the district. A letter was sent to County Commissioner Ray Judah who had yet to respond when this article went to press. It’s unknown whether the program can buy land another government agency condemned, and whether the land fits other program criteria. If the county can’t buy the land, the big question for former property owners looms. Can it go on the open market?

“Nothing’s cast in stone,” Sanders said. “This was a recommendation from our governing board to staff.”

Clark is concerned that any portion of the accumulated property might be resold, though her old property isn’t in question. She felt she received a fair market price from the buy out, but not if it gets sold down the road.

Brown actually remembers asking about what would happen if the project fell through. Would the district be able to sell the property? Could they have it written in the contract that Clark can purchase the property back at what she sold it at? The answer was there was no need, because it was written in the contract in such a way, that the district could only do certain things with the property. A park; a trail; something for the good of the community, Brown said from the couple’s current home in San Carlos Estates.

“I didn’t have a lot of choice,” Clark added.

Though her old piece of property isn’t sited to get sold, the couple say it’s the principal of the situation.

“I just want to see it used rightly. I don’t want to see all those people taken advantage of,” Clark added.

“We want the land used for the people,” Brown said. “The people just have to make sure they’re grabbing it for the right reasons.”