TAMPA -- Task force members considering the future of Cone Ranch oppose the outright sale of the property to private interests.

Six of the seven members of the Cone Ranch Environmental Advisory Panel have submitted their thoughts to the county in advance of what may be its final meeting Monday. Of the six, three say the county's Environmental Lands Acquisition and Preservation Program (ELAPP) should purchase the property, or at least the development rights to it.

The other three members say, in varying forms, that the county's Water Resource Services Department should hold on to the land but that a preservation plan should be created. The 12,800-acre tract in northeast Hillsborough County has dozens of wetlands, many of them in ailing heath due to channels dug through the property to prevent upstream flooding.

Each of the three supporting, in essence, a status quo approach advocate something being done to the land to allow some public access to it. It's closed to the public now and leased in part to a rancher.

Finally, two of the panelists say the county should look for ways to restore wetlands to earn mitigation bank credits that can be sold to other entities, a proposal that could make money for the county.

The panel was created at the urging of County Commissioner Chairman Ken Hagan after Florida Conservation & Environmental Group, made up of local businessmen, proposed subdividing Cone Ranch into six parcels and selling them to private interests. The buyers would have had to agree to preserve the parcels in perpetuity by agreeing to what are known as conservation easements. 

FCEG, which would have made commissions from the sales, informed the county Thursday that it was indefinitely tabling its proposal under growing public criticism.

Only panel Chairwoman Heidi McCree did not submit recommendations. The panel meets at 9 a.m. Monday at County Center. To view the panel's comments yourself, go to http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/coneranch/resources/publications/comments/membercomments.cfm

-- Bill Varian, Times staff writer