Bruce,
My thought when I saw this thread and looked at the aerial was that a long-term lease could serve all parties. The government gets a chunk of cash upfront and regular lease payments to fund better access for the birdwatchers and maintenance of the sensitive areas. On the other hand, with our politics being so toxic presently, what progressive politician who would not dare look at a gift horse in the mouth?
This episode reminds me of a brief stay in Orange County, CA just after I retired from commercial real estate in Texas. Real estate development in Irvine at that time was highly regulated and largely controlled by a five-member board of commissioners. A mid-rise office building was approved by a vote of 3-2 in the city and the minority sued the other three because the two felt that the $3 Million donated by the developer to the city as a condition of the approval for a new park miles away was insufficient. I didn't stay around long enough to see how things fell out, but it sure gave me a good understanding of why all types of real estate in SoCal is so astronomically expensive (some office space rates I saw quoted seemed reasonable, until I learned that they were monthly as opposed to annually).
In Los Angeles, an acquaintance who had a highly successful industrial development firm gave me a good primer on doing business in the metropolitan area. Essentially, he knew all the political decision makers in each jurisdiction, their preferred vendors, the application process, and the expectations involving donating to campaigns and causes. Sure, it might cost him $500k more in upfront costs to get a deal going in his home turf than, say, in Houston, but all his competitors had to play the same game and the higher costs are just passed on to the consumer.
But the coup de grace was in what he also noted: that he could go to Houston and build a warehouse from start to finish in a year, whereas if I as an outsider tried to do the same thing in his market, it would take me a minimum of three years, or more than double the time it would take him. The government, essentially, acts as a barrier to entry favoring large established firms in the area. As long as there is demand and supply is restricted, he has a huge competitive advantage not because he can provide a superior product at a great price, but because the regulators prevent others from doing so. I suspect that this is not unique in many large metropolitan areas and a good reason why the jobs of common folks are migrating out.