There’s a possibility that Island County will end up owning the Boyer property on the north end of Oak Harbor in order to stave off encroachment around Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

The cash won’t come from the Conservation Futures Program, but from a conglomeration of funds from the federal and state government, Island County and the city of Oak Harbor.

The Island County Commissioners voted Monday to make an offer of $2.5 million to Don Boyer, a retired car dealership owner and trustee of the land. As of Tuesday, the commissioners weren’t able to get ahold of Boyer, an Oak Harbor resident, to tell him the news.

The deal is contingent on the funding coming through. If everything works out, $1.5 million will come from the federal government, $800,000 from the state government, and $100,000 split between the county and city of Oak Harbor.

“We’re in a waiting game, waiting to see the Navy appraisal,” Commissioner Mac McDowell said. If the appraisal comes in too low, he said, the purchase plan likely won’t work out.

If it does work, the federal and state government will purchase an easement — or the development rights — on the property which will prevent any future development. The county will own the un-developable, 17-acre parcel.

The city of Oak Harbor applied for $1.7 million from the county’s Conservation Futures Program to help purchase the land. But two citizen groups tasked with judging applications unanimously recommended that the commissioners deny the application because the commercially-zoned land has little conservation value.

MacDowell and Mayor Patty Cohen are the main architects of effort to prevent development on the Boyer land, which is located on Highway 20 at Fakkema Road. The land lies within the newly-expanded “accident potential zone” off the end of a Navy runway.

Cohen pushed the City Council to pass a development moratorium on the commercially-zoned land while planners cooked up new zoning regulations to cover the APZ areas. In March, the City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that restricts land use on property within accident potential zones, as well as an adjacent buffer zone.

Even with the “downzoning,” an appraiser set the value of the Boyer property at over $2.4 million, McDowell said. Its assessed value is less than $500,000, but the assessor’s office said the value is from 2004 and based on incorrect zoning.

Cohen proposed a year ago that the city purchase the property and plant Garry oak trees on it, but the council members balked at the potential price tag. This cost-sharing plan may be more palatable.

“What this represents is a leverage of our resources in order to best protect a national defense asset,” she said.

Both McDowell and Cohen have said that the Navy base needs to be protected from encroachment or risk possible closure in the future. Development, especially high-intensity commercial buildings, encroaches on military installations, causing the base to change activities or risk jeopardizing the safety of the community.

“Whidbey is the second largest Naval Air Station,” McDowell said. “Oceana is the first, but it’s closing because of encroachment.”

McDowell said he expects to find out within 30 days if the federal government will step up to the plate with $1.5 million. It might be up to three months before he hears from the state, McDowell said.

McDowell is hopeful things will work out, but far from certain.

“I don’t count my eggs before they hatch,” he said.

You can reach Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynews

times.com or 675-6611.