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Killer bees join list of hazards of Florida living

By ROBERT P. KING
The Palm Beach Post

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- As if hurricanes, roaches, sea lice and insurance bills weren't bad enough, Floridians can add a new menace to their list of worries. Killer bees are here.

And they're going to change your life. After decades of hype and cheesy disaster movies, Africanized honeybees have established a foothold in Florida, bringing a hair-trigger temper that makes them a threat to farmworkers, landscapers, meter readers, firefighters and basically everyone who ventures outdoors.

In St. Lucie County, thousands of bees nesting below ground near water meters swarmed onto unlucky utility workers late last year, though not fatally. Separate attacks killed two dogs near Miami and Sarasota, along with a horse near LaBelle west of Lake Okeechobee.

Africanized bee colonies have turned up in ports throughout the state, including Fort Pierce and the Port of Palm Beach, and have been suspected at tourist attractions such as Busch Gardens and Downtown Disney. Nobody knows how to stop them.

So Floridians will just have to adapt just as they've learned to nail plywood before hurricanes and scan lawns for fire ant mounds. That means residents should "bee-proof" their homes, sealing any openings that could allow the insects to turn attics and walls into killer-bee condos, experts say.

People also should look out before starting lawn mowers, whose noise can provoke the bees, or opening potential nesting sites such as sheds and barbecue grills.

Those are already realities from Texas to California, where the bees showed up in the 1990s after a decades-long march from Brazil to Mexico. California firefighters receive training in rescuing bee victims, while Arizona educators have drawn up bee lesson plans for children as young as kindergarten age. (One tip for handling a bee attack: "RUN! RUN! RUN!)

But experts say the bees are just one more potential hazard in a state teeming with them. They say people are more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by bees.

"We live in a state that has fire ants that actually kill people," said Jerry Hayes, assistant chief of apiary inspection for the Florida Agriculture Department, which is including bee brochures in its display at the South Florida Fair. "We have scorpions and spiders and boa constrictors and all those scary things."

David Barnes, a bee technician for the department, said he already has had to placate panicked callers, including a landscaper's wife.

"I told her he has more to worry about about yellow jackets."

So far, the Africanized bees haven't killed anyone in Florida, the department says. They have killed roughly 1,000 people in the Americas, including at least 14 in the United States, since the bees' ancestors escaped from a Brazilian lab in 1957.

Unlike Hollywood's fictional killer bees, the real-life ones don't roam the countryside looking for people to kill. They're slightly smaller and no more venomous than the docile European strains prized by beekeepers.

But what the Africanized bees lack in size, they make up with a severe lack of anger management. All honeybees defend their hives, but the Africanized bees erupt against disturbances that European bees might shrug off - a noisy leaf-blower or nosy dog, for example. And they attack in much greater numbers.

"People end up with 300, 400, a thousand stings," said Bob van der Herchen, who runs a bee removal service in Englewood, south of Sarasota. Five hundred stings might be enough to kill a child, federal experts say.

Hayes said the deaths that have occurred "have been horrific," noting that the bees' favorite stinging targets include the nostrils and the mouth.

"It's a very gruesome way to die."

Once angered, the Africanized bees stay agitated for as long as 24 hours, posing a continuing hazard, Barnes said.

In September, a swarm of Africanized bees trapped three residents in their Miami Gardens home and attacked several firefighters, three dogs and two television journalists after someone tried to move the log where the bees were living, The Miami Herald reported at the time. One dog died.

Near LaBelle in Hendry County, Imogene Risner said her niece was washing a horse near their home last year when a cloud of bees attacked, besieging the animal's head and face. The horse died that night after suffering about 2,000 stings, she said.

Hayes' department then performed DNA tests on hives that Risner's husband, an amateur beekeeper, was tending nearby. She said the state workers killed all 40 hives with soapy water after several of those tests came back positive for Africanized genes a result she disputes.

"Bees are temperamental," Risner said, adding that after the execution, "We had a mess all summer. The honey was run out and the flies was coming from all directions."

Other incidents are less clear-cut. Last month, Palm Beach County sheriff's officials said bees attacked nine deputies, three burglary suspects and a dog during a chase through woods west of Lantana, putting three deputies in the hospital.

But nobody saved any samples, so the state couldn't determine whether they were Africanized bees, European bees or even yellow jackets.

Bee removal expert Ronnie Sharpton, owner of Palm City-based Alpine Farms, said not all mass bee attacks involve Africanized bees.

"The only time we run into aggressive bees is when someone else has been aggravating bees by throwing rocks or spraying them," he said. He urged people to leave all bees alone and let professionals handle them.

Hayes' agency continues to try to slow the Africanized bees' spread by maintaining hundreds of baited traps at ports and other key locations. But now that the bees are here, education will be a major strategy.

"We can be safe," Barnes said. "Maybe this is one more thing to pay attention to."

Trilby group ponders past and looks to future

By Joe Potter, Editor, Pasco News, Dade City

Last Thursday night, a small number of the members of the Greater Trilby Community Association gathered in the Trilby Community 
Center for the organization¹s second annual meeting.
One of the first orders of business was to elect officers for the coming year. This was quickly dispatched of, with the slate of current
officers Herb Green, president; Kathleen Fink, vice president; Richard K. Riley, secretary; and Kim Rowe, treasurer; re-elected.

Scott Black was elected as chairman of the board of directors of theGTCA and Karyn Pirrello, as vice chair.

Previously, Denny S. Mihalinec, the founder of the GTCA and its former president, had became the group¹s chief executive officer and 
chairman after passing the presidency to Green. Recently, Mihalinec dissolved his relationship with the GTCA to pursue other interests, but 
he remains an active force as a community activist in Trilby, Lacoochee and Trilacoochee.

The differences in the former and the current chairmen are striking.

Mihalinec has a visionary sense, serving as a sparkplug to help get the engine of change going. He has worked tirelessly on such projects as a
southern extension of the Withlacoochee State Trail that led to the development of the trailhead at Owensboro Park of Old Trilby. The site,
developed in a cooperative effort between the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Transportation, provided 
bicyclists and hikers with safe access to the trail from U.S. 301. Mihalinec is pushing for an extension of the trail from that southern trailhead
clear into Dade City, which he maintains would open doors of opportunity for both communities.

Black, on the other hand, provides a stabilizing influence on theboard, and, in turn, on the GTCA, which has cast itself as a change agent in not 
only Trilby, but the communities of Lacoochee and Trilacoochee. The officers of the GTCA take much of their direction from the board and 
from several committees that report to the board.

With Black¹s sure hand on the tiller, it appears likely the GTCA will steer a straight course toward many of the objectives it is pursuing,
which include attracting industry to the area; improving the infrastructure; helping to improve an existing park so area children
will have a safe place to play; and helping to improve the housing stock in areas where many people live in substandard homes.

Black¹s influence with city, county and state officials will unquestionably be a plus to the GTCA and by extension to the residents
of Trilby, Lacoochee and Trilacoochee. After all, Black, currently a Dade City City Commissioner, is a former Mayor of Dade City and a
former President of the Florida League of Cities. He is a practiced politician who knows that politics is the art of the possible and he
understands the synergy that is needed among various groups to help move projects forward.

Also, Black brings the long view of a historian to the table. He grew up in Trilby and has spent many years researching its history. He
knows, for instance, that the community was once the third largest rail yard in the state of Florida. But he also knows that the railroad has 
long since been routed past Trilby, and that the community must look for other ways in which to grow.
Black also knows that much of downtown Trilby was lost to a catastrophic fire in the early 1920s. Efforts by the nearest fire
department ‹ Dade City ‹ to battle the blaze were thwarted when the hose fell off the fire truck as it was making its way to Trilby. When
the firefighters arrived, all they could do was to sit helplessly by and watch the fire jump from building to building, reducing the town¹s
center to charred rubble.

Black knows that change in the Tri-community area will not occur overnight. But, when combined with concerted effort, time can be an
effective part of bringing about positive changes for the area.

Insurance rates rise beyond their reach

One in five Pasco homes is not insured, and many say a recent increase in homeowners insurance rates left them no choice.

By GARRETT THEROLF
Published January 29, 2006

Bertil Haney's letter to the editor was a cry for emancipation.

"Simply DROP your (homeowner's) insurance," he wrote.

The message was published recently in the Times after news that Citizen's Property Insurance Corp. had approved a 139-percent rate increase for portions of Pasco County.

"Let's buck up and just flat refuse to go along like a bunch of sheep! Let's take care of OURSELVES and be FREE for a change!"

The county commission subsequently shoved aside their regular agenda to denounce the idea, warning that any followers could risk financial devastation.

Anyone with a mortgage is likely blocked or would face penalties without insurance, in addition to the potential total loss that homeowners who own their homes outright could face in a major disaster.

Nevertheless, one out of five Pasco residents don't have homeowners insurance. A Times review of property and insurance records shows that 25,000 out of 125,000 single family homes in the county are uninsured.

The homeowners who've made the decision call it "going bare." "We had no other choice," said Doreen Linton, a 45-year-old mother with three children at her Holiday home.

The rates for the family's Citizens policy increased in October from $352 to $777 for the year, payable in one lump sum.

"We are just a working family," Linton said. Her family survives on her husband's $37,000 salary as a maintenance worker.

In December, she and her husband, Terry, fell behind in their insurance payments.

They soon joined the ranks of the uninsured.

Once they were left "bare," the Lintons found that made it even harder to get back into the world of the insured.

"I called Citizens two days after receiving a letter saying that my insurance had been canceled and the first thing they told me is that the price had already gone up to $1,300," Doreen Linton said.

Turns out that her request for "new" insurance triggered a reassessment of her home at a higher value than the one previously on file. The county property appraiser values it at $91,113.

"Unless we get a really large tax rebate this year, we're going to be left out," Terry said.

Credit counselor Renee Hanneman, who works in Pasco, said the struggle against high insurance rates is a problem she is seeing more and more often.

"I see people almost daily borrowing against the equity in their home to pay their insurance rates," Hanneman said.

In response to Haney's urging to willfully drop insurance, however, County Commissioner Steve Simon halted the rest of a recent commission meeting to speak directly to the television cameras, calling Haney's suggestion "a folly" and "an inappropriate source of civil disobedience."

"If you have any incumberance at all, if there is a mortgage, if the noteholder is worth anything, the entire amount due will be due on an accelerated schedule when they find you have nothing to insure the investment," Simon said.

Other commissioners noted that the high number of uninsured homes in New Orleans plays prominently in the struggle to rebuild there.

They didn't offer a solution, but there is always the other alternative out from under the rising rates: moving away.

A prominent Realtor in the county said large numbers of Pasco homeowners are choosing that option.

"What's going to happen once again is that we are going to have a demographic shift," Chuck Grey said. "People that have larger incomes are going to come in."

Realtor Greg Armstrong, who collects statistics on the turnover, said the numbers marked a big increase in homes on the market after Citizens began to indicate in October that another big rate increase was on the way.

"We called it the Halloween spook," Armstrong said.

"Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 10. ... there was only one gulf access home that went into contract. More than 100 went on the market," Armstrong said. "A year ago, we were looking at the number of hours or days it would take for anything to sell."

Garrett Therolf can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6232 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. His e-mail address is gtherolf@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 29, 2006, 01:28:20]

Incomplete thinking mars column's point

Letters to the Editor
Published January 29, 2006

Re: Commission cops out by catering to crowd, Jan. 15 column by Jeff Webb:

Webb's column is filled with incomplete and thoughtless statements. First, at the beginning of the citizen comment section of the meeting, Hernando County commission Chairwoman Diane Rowden made it clear that no clapping or emotional communications (booing or grumbling) would be tolerated. There was no such "mob mentality," as Webb suggested.

Second, the proposed frontage road would not significantly reduce the overburdened state of State Road 50. The cars would simply be backlogged in the traffic lanes waiting to turn into an access to the frontage road. The traffic on Brookridge Central is often backed up beyond the proposed frontage road entrance.

Webb stated that "we need leaders who will stand up for what is right and accept the consequences of their decisions." That is precisely what the county commissioners did! If the "professional planners" and the members of the Planning and Zoning Commission had completed a systematic cost-benefit analysis of the proposed development, it would have been clear that the benefits of the proposed frontage road include only a potential, temporary and partial fix for a traffic problem that has occurred because of lack of prior planning.

The costs, on the other hand, are not temporary, not potential and not partial. The costs include a significant risk of death because of the fact that emergency vehicles would not be able to get around the backup traffic and enter the community in a timely manner. The proposed second entrance to the community would not reduce the problems for residents or for emergency vehicles. Sunshine Grove Road is already busy and will be much more negatively affected by commercial and residential development already in progress.

I was appalled by Webb's statement that the county commissioners were not meeting their commitments and were looking "upon public service as a popularity contest." The commissioners who could not support the proposal based their decision on their own empirical evidence of the area involved. Clearly, Webb did not.

If, as stated in the column, "about 3,500 cars go past Brookridge every hour," then why would any responsible planner approve increased development such as the proposed mall without prior modification of SR 50? Jamming more vehicles onto 300 feet of Brookridge Central will cause significantly more, rather than fewer, problems.

It's time that the developers and planners do a more professional job of creatively constructing a strategy that allows growth without putting present residents' lives at risk and raising traffic problems to impossible levels.

Finally, I would suggest that Webb base his opinions on best evidence rather than on his ability to use his position simply to rail against those who disagree with him.

-- Rosemary A. Fraser, Brookridge

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Larger Crystal River envisioned

Annexation, a new City Hall, ways to guide growth and to slow traffic along U.S. 19 are discussed during the annual goal-setting session.

By ELENA LESLEY
Published January 29, 2006

CRYSTAL RIVER - The size of Crystal River may significantly grow in the next few years if the city can move forward with several potential annexations, City Manager Phil Deaton said Friday during the City Council's annual goal-setting session.

During the meeting, council members outlined their visions for the coming years, including building a new City Hall complex, creating a foundation to guide city development and finding methods to slow traffic along U.S. 19.

But the very borders that define Crystal River could alter, according to Deaton's presentation.

He said five communities seeking voluntary annexation might come forward before mid summer.

"The thing driving people's interest in being part of the city is a desire for sanitary sewer service," he said.

A few of the areas considering annexation: land south of Sue Lane that is adjacent to the city, an area east of the city and south of Mayo Drive, and the Indian Waters development.

Areas can receive sewer service from Crystal River without annexing. But if the residents refuse to become part of the city, they'll have to find engineers on their own and pay all the upfront costs, Deaton said.

If the residents annex into Crystal River, city staffers will coordinate the technicalities and new residents can pay back the price of the sewers over time.

Council members agreed with Deaton's approach of discouraging people from signing on for sewers without annexing.

"If you need sanitary sewer, you're in an urban area," he said. "And if you're in an urban area, you ought to annex."

The city also will look into taking over water service for the Ozello district.

Also at the session:

The council gave local activist Don Hess the go-ahead to begin creating a foundation that will guide the development of Crystal River.

Hess, who has rallied against developing a resort hotel on Pete's Pier, plans to seek grant money to preserve Crystal River's quaint feel, as well as clean up the bay and build more tourist attractions.

He proposed a corporation, part city entity and part foundation, be put in place to receive such funding. Council members designated Hess as the initial liaison. He plans first to raise money to study the Crystal River area and create an over-arching plan for development.

Council members marked the building of a new City Hall as a high priority, depending on the upcoming year's budget. Several council members expressed interest in combining the new structure with a cultural or performing arts center.

Members expressed concern about traffic on U.S. 19 and continued to support the creation of a pedestrian overpass. City Attorney Anthony Perrone is drafting an ordinance to reduce the speed limit within the city.

Though the council remains split over the idea of pursuing ownership of Pete's Pier, members said they want to establish some form of public-use city marina. While some members think the Pete's Pier property is too expensive and a marina could be built elsewhere, council member Susan Kirk continued to support the idea of acquiring Pete's Pier.

"Location, location, location - Pete's Pier has it," she said.

Based on some residents' complaints that they "feel like the (city's) neglected stepchild," council members agreed to assess the needs and wants of people who live east of U.S. 19.

[Last modified January 29, 2006, 01:27:17]

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Lawmakers try to plug sinkhole woes

Two-thirds of the $95-million in claims Citizens has paid since 2002 have been in Pasco.

By GARRETT THEROLF
Published January 27, 2006

A little more than two-thirds of the $95-million paid by Citizens Property Insurance Corp. since 2002 on sinkhole-related claims was spent in Pasco County alone.

"Why?" Rep. Don Brown asked Thursday as lawmakers began this year's attempt to lower the county's resulting skyrocketing insurance rates.

"Is the earth literally falling in? ... Or is it something else?," asked Brown, R-Defuniak Springs.

Something else, Rep. John Legg said.

"Sinkholes are not occurring at an increased rate in Pasco, but the profitability for attorneys bringing the claims has increased," Legg said before the House Insurance Committee voted in Tallahassee to approve his House Bill 217, which would limit attorneys' involvement Legg's plan would create financial incentives for policyholders to take their claims to lower-cost arbitrators who would be appointed by the state.

The insurance industry had plenty of input in the wording of the bill, which would allow policyholders to receive initial sinkhole testing at no charge, but would require them to pay $1,000 for more extensive testing. If the additional testing overturned a preliminary judgment against them, the $1,000 would be returned. Legg told the Times he expects the bill to pass the full House. But it has been tough finding support in the Senate, he said. In that body, fellow New Port Richey Republican Mike Fasano is the bill's sponsor.

The plan is opposed by attorneys who argue it would put roadblocks in the way of legitimate claims.

Craig LeValley, who is based in New Port Richey and has one of the largest sinkhole practices, spoke on their behalf at the committee hearing.

The idea of a neutral evaluator is a "fallacy," he said, because the mediation process would place a higher burden of proof on the policyholder.

LeValley effectively lobbied against the arbitration process last year, and Legg is among those who acknowledge this year's bill still could be overhauled.

Among the alternatives to a limit on an attorney's role in the claims process is the possibility that sinkhole coverage would be eliminated from the state's mandatory requirements for homeowners' insurance.

Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa, said Florida is the only state in the nation that requires sinkhole coverage.

Staff writer Colleen Jenkins contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 27, 2006, 01:21:16]

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'Pucker power' rules over all on Saturday

It's Kumquat Festival time again with all manner of treats available featuring the "tangy wangy" fruit.

By MICHELLE JONES, Times Staff Writer
Published January 27, 2006

DADE CITY - Kumquats, the fruit with pucker power, will rule in Dade City on Saturday.

First used as ornaments, the smallest of the citrus fruit is grown in groves around the small community of St. Joseph, whose claim to fame is being known as the kumquat capital of the world.

The oblong kumquats are sweet on the outside and tart inside, providing yummy components in recipes such as refrigerator pies and chutney.

The ninth annual Kumquat Festival will feature the tiny orange fruit in a variety of recipes along with other kumquat-related items for sale. More than 250 vendors will set up their booths to sell their wares around the Historic Courthouse and on Meridian Avenue in downtown Dade City.

Along with the arts and crafts there will be food items, fresh produce and kumquat cookbooks as well as other wares including candles, wood carvings, vintage jewelry and clothing, and clothes for pets. Entertainment will be featured throughout the day.

Runners and walkers will begin the day at 8 a.m. with a 5K certified run to benefit the guardian ad litem program. Walkers can join the Volkesport Family Walk at any time between 8 and 10 a.m. and take up to three hours to finish the 10K course.

Roger Swain, the red suspender-wearing, longtime host of the PBS television show The Victory Garden, will swap recipes and helpful gardening hints. He describes his favorite fruit as "tangy wangy."

Children's World features games, crafts and activities for the younger set, while kids of all ages will enjoy the antique fire truck display.

The Vintage Fashion Show scheduled for 1 p.m. at the courthouse plaza features garments from eight decades with narration by Pat Hennessey highlighting historical events of the eras.

Vintage and new cars and trucks will compete for trophies at the new county courthouse until 3 p.m.

Entertainment will begin with an opening ceremony at 10 a.m. and the Miss Kumquat Festival contest winner will be introduced on the Main Stage on Live Oak Avenue, between Third and Fourth streets.

Ashley Shannon, Rhythm n' Motion, Christopher Cool, Step "n' Time, Blackwood Studios, Peggy's Dance Place, Song & Dance, KIDZ Incorporated, His Reflections and St. Mary's Episcopal Church Children and Youth Choirs are among the entertainment scheduled.

A mainstay at the festival is the Society for the Preservation of Early Country and Western Music, which will entertain from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wachovia Bank Stage.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Kumquat Festival

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Around the Historic Courthouse, Seventh Street and Meridian Avenue in Dade City.

CALL: (352) 588-5020

COST: Free.

TAMPA - Lance Ponton Jr. was a condo developer's dream.

In September 2004, he put down 10 percent deposits on five Harbour Island condominiums before they were even built. Ponton, 27, hoped to sell them for a big profit as soon as the building was finished and his deals closed.

"But when it was done, we found that everyone else in the building was doing the same thing," Ponton said.

He ended up having to make thousands of dollars in mortgage payments for 10 months on all five condos in the ParkCrest Harbour Island. Eventually, he sold four units, pocketing $50,000 to $100,000 on each. With one more unit left to sell, Ponton hopes he can slip out of condo investing before he loses money.

"The market was really good, but it has changed, and it's time to move on to the next hot thing," Ponton said.

As Ponton has learned, rising mortgage interest rates, a swelling inventory of new condos and growing skepticism among buyers about prospects for fast profits have triggered a slowdown in the condo resale market downtown.

Indeed, real estate investors such as Ponton are finding that the days of selling units, or "flipping" contracts on pre-construction condos within hours or days, are over, especially downtown. It's taking months, or longer, to find buyers, and some sellers are having to lower their asking prices, according to sales data and real estate agents who specialize in new condo sales.

That could spell trouble not only for condo owners hoping to turn over their units quickly, but also for developers. More than 30 condo projects are in development in and around the city. Most builders are still getting permits, trying to attract buyers and lining up financing, rather than breaking ground.

Many condo developers have relied heavily on investors to raise enough start-up money to persuade lenders to finance their projects. With short-term investors shifting from urban condos, developers now must market more to people who want to live in their buildings or hold units as long-term investments. It's a tougher sell.

Compounding the problem are completed condo towers that sit half-empty, despite strong sales.

Some condo buildings that sold out during construction have few full-time residents. The reason: Many units were purchased by investors looking to resell or by people buying a second home, property records and interviews with owners show.

The dearth of full-time residents has made it difficult to attract shops and other tenants in the buildings. Some potential buyers are turned off by buildings that aren't lively, said Jason O'Neil, of Palermo Real Estate Professionals in Tampa.

"It's more difficult to attract end users right now," O'Neil said, referring to buyers who plan to live in the units full time. "It's not impossible, though, and I think it will level off as investors sell."

Take the 18-story Parkside of One Bayshore, across from Publix Supermarket at Platt Street and Bayshore Boulevard. Its 104 units sold out during construction, but almost nine months after it opened, fewer than 20 percent of the owners have filed for a Florida homestead exemption, a property tax exemption granted on primary residences.

Companies or trustees own a dozen units, property records show. The lack of primary residents and corporate ownership indicate that many owners don't live in the building, said Warren Weathers, chief deputy property appraiser at the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's Office.

"If you have under 50 percent homestead in a building, it's usually heavily investor-owned," Weathers said. "Only time will tell if those units are sold to end users. In the meantime, we'll probably see a lot of renters."

Retail Not Rushing In

The lack of primary residents appears to be affecting marketing retail space in the Parskide building. None of the 11,500 square feet of retail space has been leased.

Byron Moger, of the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, is confident that retail space in the condo high-rises will be leased. "It's just a matter of getting enough people downtown to support it."

Still, the lack of retail is an annoyance to high-rise residents such as Maryanne Piplica, who came downtown for an urban lifestyle. She and her husband bought a corner unit on the 18th floor of Parkside of One Bayshore.

Piplica, who grew up in New York, said she and her husband traded in suburban life in Palm Harbor hoping to find a lively lifestyle. With her children grown, she looks forward to walking to everything she needs.

"I was hoping for a Starbucks, a bistro-type restaurant, a small gourmet shop," she said of the empty retail space in her building. "I want to see museums and galleries and shops downtown ... things to be open after 5 p.m."

Rising mortgage rates and other factors have played a role in cooling the real estate market overall. Pair higher interest rates with escalating home prices, and some parts of Florida are at risk of an oversaturated condo market, said Bill Hudnut, senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington. He thinks Tampa, thanks to expected population and job growth, should fare better than other markets.

O'Neil, the Realtor who specializes in condo sales, said investors will be able to resell their units, but it will take longer and profits will be lower.

"People get conditioned to thinking things are going to sell in days, and that's just not happening anymore," he said. "Prices, too, will level out, but they will still be good."

A look at three recent condo developments - ParkCrest Harbour Island, Parkside of One Bayshore and Victory Lofts - highlights the strong investor activity in Tampa. Each has had high resales since opening, with a number of units for sale now.

Some investors in these and other buildings made a lot of money, but selling isn't as easy as it used to be. One condo in the Parkside tower has been on the market for 275 days. Another at ParkCrest: 260 days.

No one collects data on the average days condominiums are on the market, but real estate agents say that there is a slowdown and that they are no longer are seeing condo contracts flipped before final settlement.

Units that used to sell within days are taking months, said Kristen Myer, an agent with Smith & Associates, which is working with developers to sell units in several condo projects.

"Investors are dropping out, and that changes the way we have to market condos," Myer said.

Just six months ago, developers didn't have to advertise because investors tracked down new projects and were more than willing to buy, she said. Now, developers have to target potential full-time residents and compete with many other developers for buyers, Myer said.

More Plans To Build

Despite signs the downtown condo market is slowing, developers continue to come forward with proposals.

Crescent Resources plans to break ground in March on a 26-story building with 130 units next door to Parkside, which it also built, said Jim Walters, a real estate agent representing the projects. Crescent also has plans for two more condo buildings in the same area, he said.

Some developers of other downtown condos have restricted investor buying at the request of banks and other lenders, Walters said.

Developers such as Ken Stoltenberg, of Mercury Advisors in Tampa, say the company discourages investors from buying units because they end up competing for buyers of unsold new units.

Crescent Resources welcomes investors.

"I don't know why you would want to control the investment markets so much," Walters said. "The developer makes their money, and an end user ends up there anyway."

As far as Parkside's empty feeling, residents should be patient, he said. When the other buildings are built and more people move in, he said, restaurants and shops will follow.

Some investors are worried.

Jason Barrett, a resident in Parkside, said he is on a list of potential buyers for some condo projects. Developers use potential-buyer lists to justify their projects to city officials or banks. Some of the lists are a year or more old, Barrett said, and the names were collected when the market was much different.

He won't be buying any more condos, he said. Barrett had luck with one condo in Parkside and plans to sell his current unit in four to five years. But he had to lower his price to compete with other sellers in his building.

To Barrett, evidence that the condo market is no longer a good investment can be found at Parkside. He notes that about 40 condos were for sale when he sold his unit last summer. Many of his neighbors use their condos a few times a month, and some use it strictly as a place to party on the weekends.

Barrett, who also owns a condo in Sarasota and a condo/hotel unit on Anna Maria Island, hopes to sell those soon.

"I'm spread thin now and that's not a comfortable situation," he said.

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Focus on growth plan is critical

A Times Editorial
Published January 26, 2006

Sitting as the county's Land Planning Agency, Pasco County commissioners' yearslong work to amend its comprehensive land plan digressed Tuesday morning over the minutiae of how to hold a community meeting.

Does the meeting have to be recorded? What are the advertising requirements? Is it in a public building? Does the building have bathrooms?

But the tedious debate illustrated an imperative point: Much of the heavy lifting over how the county will control growth over the next two decades lies ahead. The nuts and bolts of enforcing the goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan still must be hashed out in the form of changes to the county's Land Development Code, which includes the ordinances developers must follow.

Even the expected requirement for developers in northeast Pasco to hold community meetings could be spelled out in the county code, as will details governing golf courses, topography protections and other standards for so-called conservation subdivisions that will require open spaces in exchange for clustered, higher-density developments on projects of at least 100 acres.

Tuesday the Land Planning Agency, which also includes School Board member Kathryn Starkey, approved the proposed amendments to the comprehensive plan, the writing of which began more than four years ago. The commission must grant final approval on Feb. 14 when the changes will be sent to the state Department of Community Affairs for review. Though much of the public debate has focused on preserving the rural character of northeast Pasco, the amendments also govern future transportation corridors, employment centers, coastal construction, commercial sites and other aspects of future development.

Much work remains. The commission must adopt three ordinances by September and others, including the rules for developing in northeast Pasco, by the end of next year to give enforcement provisions to the plan. One suggestion from the county attorney's office includes creating a new citizens board, separate from the existing Citizens Ordinance Review Committee, or CORC, to review ordinances governing rural development. It's an intriguing idea worthy of consideration.

Riding herd on the Land Development Code is critical. The awakening of a more citizen-friendly planning process in Pasco County is tied directly to previous commissions' and attorneys' inattention to that responsibility.

The controversial 1999 rezoning of what is now the Oakstead neighborhood in Land O'Lakes spawned a legal challenge to the land use plan, in part, because the commission never adopted an ordinance spelling out how developers were to conduct wildlife studies of open areas. It meant the accompanying requirement in the comprehensive plan was unenforceable. The lawsuit settlement dovetailed into a reconfigured citizens committee that helped develop revisions to the future land plan now under consideration.

The work accomplished is commendable. But it's an incomplete product.

"Stay tuned," said Commissioner Ted Schrader. Indeed. And don't forget the details. 

Send letters to the editor to cbowen@sptimes.com

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Dade City prepares to take over street

The move will allow the city to create a pedestrian-friendly downtown.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published January 26, 2006

DADE CITY - Despite a daunting price, city leaders are moving closer to approving plans to take over the downtown stretch of Seventh Street.

The cost of maintaining the busy thoroughfare, now controlled by the state as a part of U.S. 301, includes lost reimbursements for street sweeping and light maintenance. City Manager Harold Samples estimated an annual cost of more than $38,000, considerably less than what he first thought.

The city would also need to save about $10,000 a year toward resurfacing the road in 15 to 20 years. And there's the cost of replacing traffic signals, estimated at $375,000.

But assuming control over the road would solve problems with streetlights, parking and landscaping.

Under the Transportation Department, the road is subject to tough standards not intended for a pedestrian-friendly downtown. State plans call for widening the road in some places, which would swallow up more than three dozen downtown parking spaces.

If the transfer goes through, the state still would proceed with resurfacing and repairing sidewalks next year, money the city wouldn't have to spend.

"The cost scares me, but I have to be in favor of doing this because I think it gives us control of our city," Commissioner Bill Dennis said in a meeting Tuesday night.

In other news:

Commissioners voted to rezone 258 acres at Morningside Drive and Clinton Avenue for a planned-unit development. Developers plan a maximum of about 1,100 homes and townhomes, with some retail space.

An ordinance transferring prosecution of code violations from a city board to county court will be brought back for a public hearing at the next meeting, Feb. 14.

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 01:02:16]

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Rezoning clears way for building houses

But neighbors worry that developing the Dade City parcel will worsen flooding problems.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published January 25, 2006

DADE CITY - A 135-acre property the city annexed in the fall moved a step closer toward development Tuesday night.

Facing emotional opposition from many of the same residents who wanted to halt annexation, city commissioners unanimously voted to rezone the parcel at Thomas Jefferson and Adair roads.

Developers plan a maximum of 350 houses and townhouses on the land, which is historically soggy with stormwater.

Nearby residents feared the development would worsen their flooding problems.

"I would remind you that we are property owners too," Patricia Raposa said. "Among us are property owners whose neighborhood was flooded."

Deborah Lewis said she has a 17-foot-deep lake on what used to be pasture land behind her home.

"We are there first," she said. "Our homes are in peril."

City officials said the property lies in a newly designated "basin of special concern," which means developers must build twice as much retention space as in other basins.

Developer David Maltby said the design of the neighborhood, to be called Suwannee Lakeside, would put homes on the elevated portions and retention ponds down low.

"We sure aren't flooding anybody else," Maltby said.

Some residents recalled Mayor Hutch Brock's statement in the fall that he is "a believer in property rights."

Resident Larry Barnes said such rights have limits.

"I believe in that too, but I was out of my house for 13 months because it was flooded," Barnes said.

Brock reiterated his position and said responsible development can protect current homes while allowing the city to grow.

"I appreciate the appeal to the senses and to the emotions," he said.

City Manager Harold Sample said local governments are limited in how much they can control development, as long as it complies with land-use laws.

"We simply do not have the discretion many people think we do to say no," Sample said.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]

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Rezoning clears way for building houses

But neighbors worry that developing the Dade City parcel will worsen flooding problems.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published January 25, 2006

DADE CITY - A 135-acre property the city annexed in the fall moved a step closer toward development Tuesday night.

Facing emotional opposition from many of the same residents who wanted to halt annexation, city commissioners unanimously voted to rezone the parcel at Thomas Jefferson and Adair roads.

Developers plan a maximum of 350 houses and townhouses on the land, which is historically soggy with stormwater.

Nearby residents feared the development would worsen their flooding problems.

"I would remind you that we are property owners too," Patricia Raposa said. "Among us are property owners whose neighborhood was flooded."

Deborah Lewis said she has a 17-foot-deep lake on what used to be pasture land behind her home.

"We are there first," she said. "Our homes are in peril."

City officials said the property lies in a newly designated "basin of special concern," which means developers must build twice as much retention space as in other basins.

Developer David Maltby said the design of the neighborhood, to be called Suwannee Lakeside, would put homes on the elevated portions and retention ponds down low.

"We sure aren't flooding anybody else," Maltby said.

Some residents recalled Mayor Hutch Brock's statement in the fall that he is "a believer in property rights."

Resident Larry Barnes said such rights have limits.

"I believe in that too, but I was out of my house for 13 months because it was flooded," Barnes said.

Brock reiterated his position and said responsible development can protect current homes while allowing the city to grow.

"I appreciate the appeal to the senses and to the emotions," he said.

City Manager Harold Sample said local governments are limited in how much they can control development, as long as it complies with land-use laws.

"We simply do not have the discretion many people think we do to say no," Sample said.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]

Leave the modern world at the gate

The annual Mountain Man Rendezvous is a time machine. This weekend visitors travel 200 years into the past.

By MICHELLE JONES, Times Staff Writer
Published January 25, 2006

DADE CITY - Travel back in time to a place where mostly peace and tranquility reign. Where storytellers share the legends of a simpler time, when entertainment was tug of wars, cook offs and fry pan tosses.

Learn about family life before automobiles, television, computers, cell phones and other conveniences.

At the three-day Fort Dade Mountain Man Rendezvous at the Withlacoochee River Park visitors can catch a glimpse of the days when settlers traded furs with American Indians for clothing, ammunition and supplies.

This was the early 1800s, the time of Jedediah Smith, probably the most famous of all the fur-clad, grizzled individuals to explore the American West in search of adventure and fur pelts. When silk hats became the latest fashion craze and supplanted beaver pelt hats it ended the largest demand for Rocky Mountain fur trading.

Walk along trails shaded by moss-draped oaks and tall pines and visit traders who will sell a variety of items including hand-carved toys, jewelry, animal pelts and handmade leather clothing. The on-site Indian Village, circa 1800s, will be a living village for the three days complete with campsites, games, demonstrations and storytellers.

Indians will be dressed in full regalia and dance to native music played on wooden flutes and stringed instruments and to the beat of drums. The blending of the two cultures will be reminiscent of the era.

These two cultures lived in harmony and traded goods at what was called the rendezvous. Sit by open fires and listen to the tales they lived and shared so many years ago. Participate in contests such as fry pan tosses and knife throws. Children can play the games their ancestors played.

Observe demonstrations of candle-, soap- and flax-making. Sample some of the foods the mountain men and women and Americans Indians cooked and ate including fry bread, fry bread tacos, prairie dog (marinated pork sausage wrapped in fry bread) and old-fashioned root beer.

See pies baked over an open fire and visit the living history structures, including a trading post, church and house, store the park has fully furnished with accoutrements of the era.

People are invited to enjoy this free wilderness experience and meet people from all over the United States who come to this 11th-annual event at the park.

IF YOU GO WHAT: 11th-annual Mountain Man Rendezvous WHERE: Withlacoochee River Park, 12449 Withlacoochee Blvd., Dade City. From U.S. 301 take the 98 bypass to River Road. Follow signs to the park. WHEN: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday- Sunday. HOW MUCH: Free CALL: (352) 567-0264. [Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]

Rendezvous With Another Era

Published: Jan 25, 2006

DADE CITY - See what they wore and how they lived in the early 1800s at the 11th annual Fort Dade Mountain Man Rendezvous.

The free family event is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Withlacoochee River Park, 12449 Withlacoochee Blvd.

Authentic 1840s clothing, live encampments, games and contests, and demonstrations highlight the activities, sponsored by the Pasco County Parks and Recreation Department. Visitors also may walk through the park's furnished "living history structures."

For information, call the park at (352) 567-0264.

Diane Loebel

City looks to agency to slake its thirst

Zephyrhills hires a consultant to help make its case with Swiftmud and obtain a permit to allow additional pumping.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published January 25, 2006

ZEPHYRHILLS - People are coming, and they are thirsty.

As the city's population growth continues its steep climb, officials are seeing along with it an increase in the demand for groundwater.

But it's not just a matter of turning up the pumps. The city, like any major consumer of groundwater, must obtain a modification in its permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the region's water supply authority.

In the environmentally sensitive Hillsborough River groundwater basin, from which Zephyrhills draws its water, that's not an easy get.

"They're real stingy," said Louie Sellars, Zephyrhills' utilities superintendent.

When Sellars came to work for the city in 1968, demand for potable water stood at about 350,000 gallons per day. It increased steadily, until the past couple years.

"It's really jumped up big-time," he said.

The city is currently permitted to pump an average of 2.7-million gallons per day from its 10 wells. The maximum allowed is 3.4-million gallons a day.

Sellars said that when winter residents arrive, demand for water spikes and the city teeters on the edge of its average permitted capacity.

Now and then, it exceeds it.

"Every year, it goes up some," he said.

The Swiftmud permit accommodates a growth rate of about 2 percent a year, but in Zephyrhills, that figure seems archaic. In the past couple of years, the city has annexed hundreds of acres of property, most slated for residential development. More large projects are coming along.

This week, the city hired a consultant, Water Resource Associates in Tampa, to help make its case with Swiftmud and obtain a permit modification. The firm is headed by Pete Hubbell, former executive director of Swiftmud, and his partner Mark Farrell, another former district administrator.

Sellars considers the pair's ties to and knowledge of Swiftmud "a big plus" for the city.

Hubbell said he will look at several factors in demonstrating the need for more groundwater. Among them, building permits, approved development plans, annexation plans and research-based population projections.

"I think we'll be able to show that ... what's driving the demand is just unanticipated population growth, and the city has a relatively high seasonal influx," Hubbell said.

He said Swiftmud will take a hard look at any increased pumping in the Hillsborough River basin, which was declared a caution area because it has suffered environmentally due to pumping.

As executive director, Hubbell was involved in establishing minimum flows and levels and looking for ways to conserve water.

That's something else the city will have to demonstrate: conservation efforts and the use of alternative water sources, such as reclaimed water for irrigation.

Zephyrhills serves 16,546 water customers, about a third of whom live outside city limits. Pumping from wells is reported each month to Swiftmud, accounting for every gallon taken out of the ground.

Sellars said the city set a record in December, clearing the 12,000 mark for number of water meters it reads.

Molly Moorhead can be reached at 352 521-6521 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6521. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]

Contractor would act as building department

To speed up permitting and inspections, Brooksville wants a contractor to do the work of a public agency.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published January 25, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - The City Council is tired of routing all of Brooksville's building applications through the Hernando County Development Department, as it has for the past decade.

At its meeting Monday night, the council decided to seek bids for a contractor to run a "full-service building department" for the city, including permitting and inspections.

The department would help applicants avoid the glut of applications that get sent to the county and would ultimately be a way of fast-tracking the process in the city. The change might take effect as soon as late March or April and could be paid for through existing permit fees, City Manager Richard Anderson said.

Right now, the city contracts with the county, which gets 80 percent of the permit fees, or $76,800, according to a memo from Anderson.

"Due to the growth in the unincorporated area, and staffing problems due to shortage of qualified applicants, processing time has increased, and the level of assistance (complicated by new code requirements) has been reduced," Anderson wrote. "Builders and developers in the city have expressed concerns for the resulting costly delays; however, we do not establish priorities or scheduling."

Developers in particular have been hurt by the slowness of slogging through the county's permitting process.

"At Southern Hills (Plantation), these guys said it's taking too long," Anderson said. "The contractors we've talked to are willing to pay more to get it done faster."

Brooksville community development director Bill Geiger said the new setup would be essentially the same thing the city now does; only the agent it would be contracting with would be a private company, not the county.

Hiring a private contractor, he said, was a manageable first step toward instituting an in-house building department.

"If we would make our own (department), it would be deep in the red for years until we could build up a revenue base," Geiger said.

Council members agreed that they needed a building department more responsive to Brooksville builders.

"If we keep going down this road, we're going to have a problem," said council member Frankie Burnett. "I wish that whoever got rid of (Brooksville's old, in-house building department) hadn't, but we can't argue over spilled milk."

Mayor Joe Johnston III offered a "point of history" to explain why the former building department had been axed in 1996.

"The department got dropped because it was hemorrhaging money," Johnston said. "As activity is picking up, we definitely need to get it back."

At least one person had some reservations.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, Paul Boston told the council that he was worried the new contractor would cater to developers and not average citizens.

"It needs to serve everyone," Boston said.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]

New developers show interest in Pete's Pier

The attorney for the marina's owners says he's not sure of either developer's plans for the property.

By ELENA LESLEY
Published January 25, 2006

CRYSTAL RIVER - Two new developers are looking at the Pete's Pier property, and one may sign a contingent contract in the near future, said Mac McCarty, the attorney for the marina's owners.

NEHI Investments LLC's contract on the property expired Nov. 28. Though the official closing date was Jan. 11, NEHI's decision to withhold a second deposit on the land essentially ended the contract more than a month earlier, McCarty said.

"NEHI got a not great response from the city," McCarty said, referencing the company's plan to build a six-story, extended-stay resort on the property. "The contract is no longer in place."

McCarty said he wasn't sure what either new developer would do with the property.

"Going through several of these contracts is pretty normal," McCarty said. "I've told the owners we could go through four or five."

The City Council has considered trying to survey and buy the marina. But during Monday night's council meeting, Mayor Ron Kitchen came up with a new approach.

"We've been focusing on the asking price (of Pete's Pier), whether we can do something with it, if we can make money," Kitchen said. "If Pete's Pier is not available, but we see a need for a city marina, we should pursue that regardless."

Council member Susan Kirk suggested the council consider a vacant lot across from City Hall, known locally as "the Smiley property." She said she had recommended the city buy it back when she was on the Community Redevelopment Agency.

"We could build a new city hall and a marina on that property," said council member Roger Proffer, "and it would sure be a lot cheaper than $10-million."

NEHI reportedly was willing to pay $11.5-million for the marina.

But Proffer added that the water near the Smiley property may be too shallow, so dredging would be necessary. Council members instructed City Manager Phil Deaton to check with the Army Corps of Engineers about dredging, as well as look for other potential marina sites.

During the meeting's public input section, Rick Suggs, owner of Premier Construction Group Inc., suggested that the council rezone Pete's Pier from commercial to residential.

"Residential on Pete's Pier could easily create a $25-million tax base," he said.

Council members expressed interest in the idea.

"We're wishing, we're dreaming," council member John Kendall said regarding the city's previous interest in buying Pete's Pier. "But we've got to be more realistic."

In other council news:

Council members voted to create an ordinance changing the city's code enforcement process.

At the last council meeting, City Attorney Anthony Perrone said that the current code enforcement hearing official is also the city attorney for Inverness. The Florida Constitution prohibits dual office holding. The official also was not a resident of Crystal River, which does not coincide with state regulations unless a special ordinance is passed by the city. Such an ordinance was never created.

In addition, the city staff have complained that fines are not being efficiently collected. Council members instructed Perrone to create an ordinance for a staff-driven model of code enforcement with an appeals component and a hearing official.

Because of a procedural error made by the city attorney, the council will replace its previous ordinance for annexation of Nokomis Point with a new one marking the deadline for ballots as April 4. The ordinance will go through two public hearings.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:55:16]

RV park backers pitch plan to county

They say it would have little impact on Big Lake Spivey and would help the environment.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 25, 2006

INVERNESS - Developers of a proposed luxury RV resort made their first pitch to the County Commission on Tuesday.

The 499-unit, age-restricted recreational vehicle park, dubbed Preservation Pointe, would be located on 207 acres about 3 miles east of Inverness off State Road 44 E.

But both supporters and critics of the project said Tuesday that the most important issue was its close proximity to Big Lake Spivey.

Representatives of developer Century Realty Funds said the lake would draw residents to the upscale Class A motor coach resort. But they argued that residents of the park would have little impact on the lake and said that the project would help the environment, not harm it.

At Tuesday's meetings, commissioners peppered representatives of the developer with questions.

Commission Chairman Gary Bartell had not yet opened discussion to public comment at press time, but county environmental planner Sue Farnsworth said she had received numerous complaints from residents concerned about the development's environmental impact on the lakes.

In order to break ground on the project, Century Realty Funds needs the county's approval to change the property's zoning from coastal lakes to recreational vehicle park. That requires changes in the county's comprehensive plan and land development code. Last month, the Planning and Development Review Board voted 5-2 to recommend denial of the application.

Commissioners are slated to vote on the project in their Feb. 28 meeting.

Commissioners also discussed a number of other proposed comprehensive plan amendments, including policy changes involving wetlands, springs protection, coastal high hazard areas, affordable housing and hurricane shelters.

"This is starting to be an issue in Citrus County that I never thought we would face," Community Development director Chuck Dixon said in reference to the proposed initiatives to handle the county's affordable housing shortage.

Ron Lieberman, chairman of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, told commissioners that the county needed to act now to improve the county's affordable housing situation.

"People have a misconception that this has to do with a certain group of people, but it has to do with all of us," Lieberman said. "It is a larger issue and we're going to all be paying for it with higher prices."

Inverness attorney Clark Stillwell, representing the Citrus County Builders Association, said the county should take another step in order to ensure affordable housing. He said the county should designate specific areas as affordable housing in fill areas so that developers "can go there and build that product and be well received."

In other news at Tuesday's meeting:

Commissioners voted unanimously to pass a resolution in support of the possible construction of another nuclear plant at Progress Energy's Crystal River complex.

To support the state's burgeoning population, the company is considering building another nuclear plant.

In an October briefing for local government officials, Progress Energy vice president and chief nuclear officer C.S. "Scotty" Hinnant said the Crystal River site, where the company already operates a nuclear reactor, was one of the locations being considered.

Progress Energy officials have said the company will announce its decision in March.

Commissioner Joyce Valentino said she wanted to remind citizens that the resolution was a sign of support, not approval of plans for a new plant.

Commissioner Vicki Phillips said a copy of the resolution should be sent to Progress Energy officials and members of the county's legislative delegation.

A new date was set for the commission's special meeting to discuss the county's possible acquisition of the Florida Governmental Utility Authority's Citrus systems. The meeting is slated for 9 a.m. Feb. 28.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 00:54:10]

Floridians oppose propose offshore boundary change

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Both of Florida's U.S. senators and fourteen of the state's 25 House members sent a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary Gale Norton objecting to a federal proposal they say could move offshore drilling closer to the state's beaches.

The Floridians complained about her department's plan for administrative boundary changes that would give pro-drilling Alabama and Louisiana authority over portions of the Gulf of Mexico south of the Panhandle historically under Florida's control.

"While the long term effects of this change remain unclear, we are concerned that this is yet another attempt to undermine Florida's ability to control activities off of its own coast, including offshore oil and gas drilling," the Florida lawmakers wrote.

They are worried the change would open portions of Lease Sale 181 where drilling now is prohibited. Part of the area known as the "stovepipe" comes within 16 miles of Pensacola's beaches.

Most Florida politicians have opposed offshore drilling because they fear it could pollute beaches vital to the state's tourism business and interfere with military training and weapons testing in and over the gulf.

Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, a Republican, and the representatives - eight Republicans and six Democrats - also noted the proposal was published in the Federal Register without any notice or opportunity for public comment.

"Anytime such changes are being considered, decision makers should be made aware of the full impact of such a proposal, including how it will affect our environment, economy and national security," they wrote, adding that they hoped in the future the department "will consult with us and give the people most affected by its decisions an opportunity to comment."

A spokesman for Norton referred questions to the department's Minerals Management Service, which did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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Growth plans upset some but still move forward

The Zephyrhills City Council sets public hearings on two townhouse projects and an industrial development.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published January 24, 2006

ZEPHYRHILLS - The ongoing struggle between growth advocates and nervous residents surfaced Monday night as City Council members gave the green light to a handful of small, new developments.

More than a dozen residents came to the council meeting to oppose development of a 5-acre property into 56 townhouses. The site, on the west side of Court Street and south of State Road 54, sits among single-family homes on large lots.

"We're very upset with putting that many people in that small area," said Court Street resident Debra Adcock.

She said traffic is a major concern. Herbert Richmond mentioned flooding and the relocation of gopher tortoises living on the lot.

"We have one living under our house and he's quite comical," Richmond said.

Council members voted 4-1 to hold a public hearing Feb. 27 on the land-use change.

Member Clyde Bracknell voted no because of the traffic worries.

"There is a traffic problem at 54 and Court Street that we really need to look at in this project and any other," Bracknell said to applause from the residents.

The board also moved forward a townhouse project on Fort King Road, south of Eiland Boulevard. The 28-acre site abuts the Valleydale mobile home park for people 55 and older.

Valleydale resident Raymond Bennett said townhouses would not be compatible.

"You have a problem now with school overcrowding," Bennett told council members. "What about police and fire protection?"

Council members voted to move the project forward to a public hearing. They told Bennett that the townhouse development would have to comply with new standards, including a substantial buffer between the two neighborhoods.

That parcel was once considered as a possible site for a city park. City Manager Steve Spina said it was appraised for $33,000 per acre and sold for twice that much.

Also approved for public hearing is an industrial project off Sixth Avenue near the city-owned airport.

Owners hope to sell the 94-acre property to a company that can use the railroad line that runs along the site.

[Last modified January 24, 2006, 00:55:20]

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Bronson: Florida tomato shortage at an end

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A tomato shortage, created by hurricanes last year, appears to be ending.

With Florida's winter harvest now in full swing, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Monday that grocery shelves should soon be full of the state's top quality tomatoes and prices should decrease.

"An unusually large amount of No. 1 tomatoes are ready to go," Bronson said. "The price will be going down so the average person will be able to afford No. 1, fresh Florida tomatoes."

Hurricane Wilma that struck Florida in October delayed the current harvest, sending tomato prices to the $4 a pound range, up about $1.50, and some restaurants, including fast food giant Wendy's, removed tomatoes unless specifically requested.

Hurricanes made 2005 one of the worst years in recent memory for Florida agriculture. Four storms that struck the state not only caused an estimated $2.2 billion in damage to the state's crops and farming infrastructure, but the storms are believed to have spread citrus canker as well.

Hurricane Wilma's Oct. 24 sprint across Florida came right after tomato and vegetable plants had been in the ground.

Florida supplies more than half of the nation's fresh vegetables between the months of November and February.

 

Spare crowded SR 50 any more development

Letters to the Editor
Published January 24, 2006

Re: Commission cops out by catering to crowd, Jan. 15 column by Jeff Webb:

Sorry, but I do not agree with Webb's column about the frontage road mess proposed along with the new commercial development near Brookridge.

Why do we need any more commercialism on State Road 50 from High Point to Grove Road? Traffic from Mariner Boulevard up to the traffic light for the Suncoast Parkway is heavy now. So they want to build businesses along the already congested route? Why?

I don't agree that heavy traffic is caused by residential development, not commercial development. They both cause it.

One person wrote in to say that it will be good for Brookridge because it will provide services we now have to drive to Pasco County for. Like what? All you have to do now is drive to Mariner Boulevard, on either side of State Road 50, for restaurants, stores, movie theaters, Sears, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, etc. They are also putting up a new motel. So what are we missing that we need more of?

They admit SR 50 is overburdened. ("The amount of traffic exceeds their recommended standards.") So why are they allowing more development on SR 50? The commissioners are not bowing to Brookridge residents. For once, someone is listening to the common people.

I know the frontage road behind Register Chevrolet is already built and has to come somewhere. We knew when they started it there was going to be a mess. To have it going across Brookridge Central all the way to Grove Road is not the answer. How will anyone turning into Brookridge Central get into Brookridge if the frontage road goes across and all the way up to Grove Road?

I do agree that Brookridge should have another entrance other than SR 50. We have a gate onto Grove Road that should be used by some residents who live farthest from the front gate. That would help the bottleneck at SR 50. Use a "keyed" entry for that entrance only.

-- Nancy Eslick, Brookridge

Residents have right to stand against frontage road proposal

Re: Commission cops out by catering to crowd, Jan. 15 column by Jeff Webb:

Webb apparently considers citizens expressing concerns regarding their safety as "mob mentality" and "bad manners." With such a position, the government would have never changed its position on civil rights or Americans with disabilities!

From Webb's column, it appears his opinion is the only one that counts and everyone else should be quiet.

A frontage road crossing Brookridge Central Boulevard approximately 300 feet from State Road 50 and 200 feet from our guard gate is what Tampa residents would call a "Malfunction Junction."

We agree that SR 50 is already a failed road with a grade of F. However, creating another F road 300 feet from an F road is not a logical solution. When traffic backs up on Brookridge Central, it will cause a traffic jam at SR 50 and Barclay.

Poor planning got the county in this position and there is no quick, easy fix. A frontage road across Brookridge Central is only a Band-Aid fix that does not look after the majority of the constituents or the long-range welfare of the county. As you know, the long-range solution from DOT is to widen SR 50 from Mariner Boulevard to Wiscon Road.

We regret that Webb considers our group has a mob mentality. Some of our members did applaud a couple of times, but I never heard anyone "boo," as he stated. Actually, I thought we conducted ourselves in a dignified manner.

We will continue to fight for what we think is best for our residents. That is the American way!

-- Robert T. Wilkes, Jr., president

Brookridge Community

Property Owners, Inc.

[Last modified January 24, 2006, 00:55:20]

Injunction leveled at log yard operation

A circuit judge says that two men can't justify operating a logging business with the state's Right to Farm Act.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 24, 2006

A circuit judge has sided with the county in its long-running legal battle with Scott Adams and Charles Strange over a business the pair operated at County Road 486 and Croft Avenue.

In an eight-page ruling issued last week, Circuit Judge Richard Tombrink granted the county's request for a permanent injunction against Adams and Strange. He said they could not operate a logging and wood recycling business there without a development permit.

Attorneys representing the county have argued that the business should be permanently closed unless the owners obtain development permits required under the county's Land Development Code.

Tallahassee attorney Lance Langston, representing Adams and Strange, argued that the county code does not apply because the log yard was an agricultural operation that does not require permits under the state's Right to Farm Act.

In testimony before Tombrink in November, Adams said that cypress lumber gathered on the site, as well as wood and debris from other land-clearing projects, was processed and sold wholesale as logs or mulch.

He said that a permit is not required because the log yard meets the legal definition of a farm and is therefore exempt.

But Tombrink said the Right to Farm Act was not a valid defense against the facts proved in the case.

"Most of the critical facts in this case are convoluted, and the evidence from each side was rarely consistent with the other sides' presentation," the judge wrote.

Adams' code enforcement battles with the county over the property began in 1999 when officials first said a permit was necessary to operate a wood-mulching business.

A judge temporarily shut down the business in March 2000 until the case could go to trial.

Adams and Strange resumed business for a week in January 2001, protesting what they felt was an unjust injunction.

Adams spent part of the day in jail. He was charged a $500 fine for contempt of court. Strange spent 24 days in jail.

At a trial in February 2001, Adams and Strange requested more time to prepare their defense, and the trial remained in limbo until last year.

Adams said Monday he had not yet seen Tombrink's ruling, but he said they planned to appeal the decision.

"I kind of figured that this was going to happen. I was hoping something different, but that's why we have appeals court," he said.

--Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified January 24, 2006, 00:55:20]

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New Neighbor Finds Trouble With Activity On Wetlands

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Scaling back may be best way to afford new school

A Times Editorial
Published January 22, 2006

---

People have used many terms over the years to describe longtime School Board attorney Richard "Spike" Fitzpatrick. Intense, highly intelligent, even arrogant at times.

But a rebel? A free-thinking, out-of-the-box kind of guy? Hardly.

Yet, there he was at the board's most recent meeting advocating a mind-blowing change in attitude for the board as it considers how to afford a new elementary school in the fast-growing Citrus Springs area.

The gap between the projected cost, about $25-million, and the expected revenue from state and local sources is roughly $2-million. The board had been talking about ways of raising the money, including using the dreaded "B" word, bonding.

Fitzpatrick then dropped his bombshell: Rather than looking for more money to spend, why don't you look for ways to cut $2-million worth of stuff from the plans for the new school?

"We're building a school with things in it that didn't used to have to be in schools and maybe we don't have to have them at all," he observed.

Economizing - what a concept.

To be fair, the School Board and the district are not known to be profligate in their construction projects. For many years, the Citrus district was one of very few in the state that could claim to be keeping pace with growing student enrollment by building schools on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Search the county and you will not find Taj Mahals, even in the newest campuses. And the board is considering buying concrete portables as a way to make new classroom space available quickly and at a reasonable price.

Fitzpatrick, however, is correct to try to alter the board's thinking. If the district can live with some slightly scaled-down building plans and wish lists, the taxpayers can avoid the extra costs associated with borrowing construction funds.

In some respects, it will require an attitude adjustment. Just as a family planning a new home can be seduced by the latest design frills and gadgets, school personnel can envision all sorts of niceties for their dream school.

Someone has to be the bad guy and remind everyone that we can't afford every bell and whistle we would like. When that someone is Fitzpatrick, who has been involved with the school district's top-level operations seemingly forever, board members and the public must take notice.

Fitzpatrick is not calling for construction of generic boxes for students that would more resemble a prison than a learning facility. And as the board's point man on the ongoing saga of the Homosassa Elementary School construction mess, he knows all-too-well the pitfalls of corner cutting.

With construction costs soaring across the board, the district for the foreseeable future will have to perform this balancing act between the demand for new schools - and the amenities each will have - and the limited funds available.

It helps to be reminded that there is more than one way to make ends meet.

[Last modified January 22, 2006, 01:01:11]

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Two Tribune stories about the Brandon Mall- anyone who thinks that once the THREE malls planned between 56 and 52 are built that will be the end of it needs to read these stories.

 

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Downtown landmark deserved preserving

Letters to the Editor
Published January 20, 2006

A wave of nausea overcame me recently while attending the farmer's market in downtown Clearwater. I watched as heavy equipment was unloaded and gouged our public streets in preparation for the razing of Calvary Baptist Church.

 

Calvary Baptist is currently blitzing the city with fliers beginning with the lines, "Tomorrow does not have to be like yesterday. We all need a place to begin again" (i.e., in the new Calvary Baptist sanctuary on McMullen-Booth Road). Although spiritually correct, the lines seem to gloss over and justify the demolition of one of our landmarks. How can we know where we are headed if we don't know where we have been?

Tearing down our heritage and losing our identity and sense of place does not bode well for the future. This is our last surviving landmark on the bluff and should have been saved. Most cities would have demanded its preservation as a cultural arts center such as in other Florida cities. Our mayor, to his credit, made a good-faith effort but, overall, the effort was short-lived and misdirected.

I'll share the blame for not pushing harder for a historic ordinance, though I've been talking about one for years. Belleair has one. Each major upcoming high-rise project downtown or along North Osceola involves taking down part of our history. No adaptive reuse of our historic resources is anywhere in sight.

And, similar to the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Belleair, Calvary Baptist sanctuary will be irreplaceable.

-- Mike Sanders, Clearwater

Money valued more than people in mobile homes

Where are the laws to protect mobile home residents from being displaced without compensation for the fair market value of their homes? State law allows this to happen, and there is nothing we can do or say that will change that. The bottom line is money, and obviously the state or local governments are not making any money on mobile homes. Therefore, it is okay to say to a mobile home owner that they can no longer reside in their home and they will get a mere pittance to appease them and make them go away.

Mobile homes are not trailers (they do not move), and many are as lovely as any home. Mobile home owners pay for their homes, like other homeowners. Mobile home owners insure their homes, like any homeowner. Whether it is $1,000 or $100,000, the home is bought and paid for.

We have to evacuate during a hurricane the same as someone living in a million-dollar home on the beach. Fortunately, after the storm we are, in most cases, able to return to our homes that have sustained minor or no damage, the same as those expensive beach homes.

Why should a mobile home owner be treated as a second-class citizen because of their housing? That is what is happening - by our county commissioners, developers and mobile home park owners. The park owner has benefited from the residents who take pride in their homes and the property they are renting.

The almighty dollar means more than the well-being of families and the elderly who reside in these homes and who will lose everything. If our lawmakers had family or maybe an elderly parent that would be displaced as well as lose their investment, perhaps they would have a little more compassion.

Maybe the thought of having their elderly parent move in with them because there is no other place for them to go would give them a little more compassion. Or maybe not!

The bottom line is money. Where are the laws?

-- Ann Santos, Largo

Developer interested in Bon Appetit

A plan for condos fuels speculation about the waterfront restaurant. But one of its owners says it's business as usual.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published January 20, 2006

DUNEDIN - Preliminary plans to redevelop the Bon Appetit Restaurant site as an 81-unit waterfront condominium complex have been filed with the city, though the longtime owner says the restaurant has not changed hands.

"Customers come in and ask me about it, and I look them directly in the eye and tell them it has not been sold," said Peter Kreuziger, who notes that it's business as usual at the restaurant.

Kreuziger co-owns the upscale restaurant business with Karl Riedl, though they do not own the land or building at the Dunedin Marina Plaza where Bon Appetit is located.

"I will tell you, we have several interested parties, several different groups," Kreuziger said. "We have never solicited a buyer; we just keep getting offers. We do listen to them, but we are very happy here. We've been in business for 30 years and we still enjoy it."

So far, the prospective developers of the property are not talking publicly about their plans.

Pageco Dunedin LLC of Indian Shores has filed preliminary site plans for a development called Porte Royale.

Renderings submitted to the city show a split-style condominium complex with a clubhouse in the middle. The design resembles Mediterranean architecture with bright colors, arched doorways and a tile roof. Each side contains 34 units with six penthouses, 74 parking spaces and six two-car garages. There is also a penthouse on top of the clubhouse.

Efforts this week to reach the principals of Pageco were not successful.

Kevin Campbell, the city's director of community services, said he understands the property is under contract but doesn't know the terms, details or contingencies, if any.

Dunedin officials are conducting an initial review of the site plan to see how the development would affect the city's water, sewer, traffic and fire protection services.

The property is located in the downtown Community Redevelopment Agency District and would be subject to the newly amended height restriction requirements within the Uniform Development Code.

"The design appears to comply with the 50-foot height requirement and appropriate building step backs," said Campbell, who noted that the building would be slightly higher than 50 feet based on flood elevation requirements.

The "step back" requirements, which in essence create a wedding cake effect, are designed to minimize the visual effects of newer, taller buildings.

The restaurant features a panoramic view of St. Joseph's Sound and Caladesi Island State Park. Kreuziger said the facility hosts about 100 wedding receptions a year.

"We have weddings for March 2007 already booked," he said.

The two-story building at 150 Marina Plaza, on Main Street and Victoria Drive, was built in 1961, and the two men took over operations in 1976, Kreuziger said.

The Pinellas County Property Appraiser's records list Adeline Phillips as the owner of 150 Marina Plaza. Paperwork filed with the city lists the owner as Lee Ann Phillips Diamond. Efforts on Thursday to reach the property owner were unsuccessful.

Kreuziger said they have "over 40 years to go" on the lease. A buyer would not only have to buy the land but buy out the lease as well.

Kreuziger and Riedl also own and operate Cafe Alfresco and own the locations for 13 other stores whose operators rent space from them.

The restaurateurs are known for their philanthropic endeavors, as well as for providing an elegant dining experience. For 15 years, they provided holiday meals for homebound elderly, dishing up the same foods as the guests received. They have also furnished the food for UPARC's fundraising omelet parties. Earlier this week, they threw a farewell party for retiring City Manager John Lawrence.

The future of the Dunedin Marina Plaza property, which includes Bon Appetit and the Marina Cafe, as well as the adjoining Best Western Yacht Harbor Inn, has generated a lot of buzz around Dunedin.

"There has been a lot of speculation; people all over town are talking about it," said Gregory Brady, owner of Gregory's hair salon and a leading figure in the downtown business district. "It's the only waterfront dining facility in downtown Dunedin and one of the better wedding facilities in the area. If it goes away, it will be missed."

That's not going to happen, Kreuziger said.

When asked if he would move Bon Appetit to another location if the property was sold, Kreuziger said, "Hypothetically, if it was sold, we would consider other locations in the immediate Dunedin area and if they were on the waterfront. And if we don't sell Bon Appetit, we still are looking at other concepts (restaurants) in Dunedin."

He said the partners have had talks with representatives of Prime Dunedin, the company building a condo and retail complex called the Marina, which is planned directly across Victoria Drive.

They are also entertaining the idea of a restaurant at the Schiller International University property, which is under contract for sale with George Rahdert, who plans to restore the historic building into a luxury hotel-condominium.

"We plan to stay in Dunedin regardless of what happens," Kreuziger said.

[Last modified January 20, 2006, 01:47:16]

Brooksville Raid Festival

Before 'cars or phones or electricity'

In Civil War times, there was life off the battlefield. This weekend's Brooksville Raid Festival will let visitors step into the past.

By LOGAN NEILL, Times Correspondent
Published January 20, 2006

The 3,000 or so Civil War re-enactors who will descend on the Sand Hill Scout Reservation this weekend always bring with them an impressive arsenal of muzzle-load cannons and rifles. After all, you can't stage much of a battle without them. However, the 26th annual Brooksville Raid Festival is much more than a fight between the Blue and the Gray.

For visitors, the festival offers a living, breathing glimpse of history, an opportunity to step back into time and see what life and American culture were like during the mid 19th century.

"It's an excellent chance to see close up how people lived before there were cars or phones or electricity," said Jan Knowles, longtime chairwoman of the Brooksville Raid Festival. "There's something there that everyone can relate to."

Knowles said the softer side of 19th century can be found in attending Saturday's ladies tea social at 11 a.m.

During Civil War times, such gatherings offered women a rare opportunity to openly discuss social issues and to relax and enjoy poetry and musical entertainment.

"Most historians consider ladies teas to be the foundation of what would eventually become the suffrage rights legislation," Knowles said.

Saturday's activities will once again feature a rollicking baseball game at noon. Staged by the Pinellas Vintage Baseball Team and played to original 1860s rules - which were sparse at best - the gamesmanship is often raucous and hard-knuckled, with little attention paid to the eventual outcome.

Another traditional Brooksville Raid Festival highlight is the annual Blue-Gray Ball, a formal dance that allows reenactors from opposing sides to set aside their arms for a while and enjoy traditional music, entertainment and refreshments. The ball, which begins at 8 p.m. Saturday, is also open to spectators.

The troop encampments are always a great source of pride for the festival's organizers. Visitors can observe what everyday life was like for a Civil War soldier. Devoid of anything that is "nonperiod," the camps let spectators see soldiers cooking supper over an open fire, practicing drills or working to keep their equipment in order.

However, there is little doubt that the event's main draw is the battle reenactment sequences, which are held during the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday. This year's raid will see the battlefield action return to the original open field site, which was abandoned for the past two years because of flooding.

"It's much better in that there's more room to stage the battle," Knowles said. "I think our fans will be happy we moved it back, too."

Alex Lund, a reenactor who travels each year from Jacksonville to participate in the event, says that while he enjoys the thrill of being part of a big battle reenactment such as the Brooksville Raid, he sees himself as part of a noble effort to educate people about the past.

"When I see kids at the festival, I'm reminded that at least for a little while I'm a teacher of history," Lund said. "My goal is to somehow give them a greater understanding of what their ancestors experienced long ago."

Logan Neill can be reached at lneill@sptimes.com or 352 848-1435.

[Last modified January 20, 2006, 01:47:16]

Real Brooksville Raid more like hide and seek

Union troops were seeking nonmilitary targets to snuff out Hernando County's support of the Confederacy.

By LOGAN NEILL, Times Correspondent
Published January 20, 2006

Civil War historians acknowledge that the true Brooksville Raid was little more than a footnote in the epic conflict between the North and the South.

Unlike the re-enactment of the event being staged this weekend at the Sand Hill Scout Reservation, there were no batteries of cannons firing barrages across an open field, no regiments of soldiers charging shoulder to shoulder into combat.

In truth, the battle that occurred in early July 1864 was more like a game of hide and seek, with Union troops creeping through the dense, swampy woods of Hernando County in search of nonmilitary targets to destroy, all the while fending off occasional attacks by their Confederate enemy.

The success of the Yankee mission, however, probably meant much more to a Northern victory than most Civil War chroniclers are apt to give it credit for. At least that's what Virginia Jackson, executive director of the Hernando Heritage Museum and a longtime organizer of the Brooksville Raid Festival, thinks.

"They did exactly what they came to do," said Jackson, who has researched and written extensively on the Brooksville Raid over the years. "They knew that Hernando County was supporting the Confederacy, and they were determined to stop it."

According to Jackson, the four Union ships that anchored off the coast of Bayport near a Confederate outpost were part of a concerted effort late in the war to deprive the Confederacy of the needed goods that were grown and produced locally. Over a six-day period, about 300 Union soldiers went to work destroying salt mills, killing livestock and setting fire to farms and private dwellings before leaving with tons of confiscated sugar, salt and cotton.

Although the Union and Confederate forces engaged each other in small skirmishes, casualties were minimal: five dead on the Confederate side and three dead on the Union side. The federal troops never entered the town Brooksville, but their pillaging of the surrounding area had a devastating effect on the local economy.

"It took decades for things to get back to what they once were before the war," Jackson said. "Some families lost everything they had in the raid."

Although the modern day re-enactment is more dramatic theater than historical fact, the event delivers a visual picture of what life was like during the Civil War.

The 3,000 or so re-enactors expected to participate this weekend are noted for their dedication to exacting detail. Many spend the weekend eschewing modern conveniences, preferring to sleep in canvas tents and cooking meals in iron pots over open fires.

"It's like living history," said Chris Ellrich, a platoon commander with Tallahassee's 2nd Florida Infantry Company D, also known as the Leon Rifles. "When you put the uniform on, it's like being transported back in time."

[Last modified January 20, 2006, 01:47:16]

First, RV resort. Now, homes

Century Realty Funds needs a zoning change to build another county project: a 400-home, age-restricted community.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 20, 2006

HERNANDO - The developer behind the proposed luxury RV resort off State Road 44 E has submitted plans for another Citrus County project.

Century Realty Funds is proposing a 400-home, age-restricted community on 100 acres off State Road 200, according to papers filed at the county's Community Development office this week.

The project's entrance would be east of U.S. 41 and south of County Road 491, across from E Olive Lane.

To build the project, the developer needs the county to change the site's zoning from low density residential to medium density residential. That will require an amendment to the county's comprehensive plan and the land development code.

Century Companies vice president for development Neil Combee said Thursday that the developer was still trying to decide whether the project would consist of manufactured homes or conventional single-family homes.

The site's zoning allows for mobile homes.

"We just think the market would work either way," Combee said.

The gated community would include a 12,000-square-foot clubhouse, a swimming pool, tennis courts, shuffleboard facilities and a horseshoe pit.

Combee said the developer was originally drawn to the site because it allowed manufactured homes. And the area is an attractive spot for new developments, he said.

"We love Citrus County. We think it's a great place, and certainly a great place for active adult communities," Combee said.

Ray Moats, another Century vice president, said pricing would depend on what type of housing units the company decides to construct.

In other similar developments initiated by the company, Moats said, single-family homes start in the upper $100,000 range. Manufactured homes generally average $65,000, he said.

Lots would be about 50 feet wide, he said, and between 90 and 100 feet deep.

Low-density residential allows for two units per acre or up to six units per acre in a planned development. Medium-density residential allows for six units per acre or up to eight units per acre in a planned development.

According to property appraiser records, the land is owned by River Oaks Properties Inc. and was assessed at $456,000 in 2005. Citrus Hills developer Steve Tamposi is listed as the company's president on the application on file with the county.

In September, Century Realty Funds submitted plans for an RV park on 207 acres off SR 44 E 3 miles east of Inverness.

The company originally proposed 810 pads, but scaled back to 499 units in response to neighborhood and county concerns about density.

County staffers recommended approval of the project. But it has drawn criticism from local homeowners associations and the TOO FAR environmental group.

And in December, the Planning and Development Review Board voted 5-2 against the zoning change Century requested.

The RV park proposal is slated to go before the County Commission for the first time Tuesday in a workshop.

Century is also the developer of Walden Woods, a manufactured home community on U.S. 19 less than a mile south of U.S. 98.

The company's proposed SR 200 development was mentioned in a November memo from Community Development director Chuck Dixon. It that memo, which described large developments in various stages of the county pipeline, Dixon also mentioned two nearby projects off U.S. 41 in Hernando: the 950-unit Felicia Station project and the 980-unit Oak Lakes Project.

Combee said the other projects are not affiliated with the Century development, but the group is working with the county to help fund a study of water and wastewater service in the area.

The Planning and Development Review Board and the County Commission will discuss and ultimately vote on the proposed SR 200 development at workshops and hearings. But senior planner Joanna Coutu said those meetings have not yet been scheduled because a traffic study for the project has not been submitted.

Coutu said county staffers have not yet started to review the project.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified January 20, 2006, 01:47:16]

In farm life, they find creatures comfort

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published January 19, 2006

RICHLAND - To Stephanie Wilson, home means six cows, two pigs, two dogs, six cats, a bird and a fish - a blue beta named Blueberry.

At 12, Stephanie, a 4-H Club member, knows all about caring for living creatures. It's something she does every day on the 2-acre farm in the country where she lives with her parents, at the end of a long dirt road.

On a fine, moonlit night in January, the Florida sky dimpled with stars, Stephanie shined a flashlight on her calf, Heaven, a fawny brown creature with big dewy eyes, a wet nose and the trademark cartoonlike eyelashes of a Jersey cow.

"Feeding starts at 5 a.m.," she explains of her daily ritual, which also requires milking her prized cow, Flyer. She will show Flyer at the Pasco County Fair and a host of other winter fairs, including the Florida State Fair and the Plant City Strawberry Festival.

"There's not a lot of time for watching TV," she says. "Usually I'm outside working or busy with 4-H."

As Pasco County continues to sprout housing developments and shopping centers like rows of sweet corn in July, the rural life that once distinguished this county from nearby metropolitan areas is fast disappearing.

Stephanie's parents bought their farm last year after their Zephyrhills home was purchased by Pasco County under its eminent domain law in order to make room for a retention pond for a new Lowe's.

They decided to buy a 2,100-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home in the country because Stephanie's love for 4-H and raising livestock was blossoming.

"We wanted a little more land and a barn for the cows," explains Stephanie's mom, Sharon Loss-Gullet, who grew up "in the city in Zephyrhills." Country life suits Sharon and her husband, Robert Gullett, just fine.

The area is nice and quiet, they say, and their neighbors - most of whom also own farm animals - don't mind a few cows roaming around.

"Actually, if they see a cow in your yard, they say, "What a nice cow that is!"' says Sharon, who works as a title and inventory clerk at Pasco Motors in Dade City. Robert is a manager at a Lakeland auto glass business. Still, Sharon admits, she never pictured herself adapting with such abandon to country life.

"I was a cheerleader," she says with a laugh. "I mean, I had a horse, but I was never into cows or anything like that."

Now her mobile home brims with cow, pig and chicken decor: cookie jars, tea towels, magnets, clocks, dishes, iced tea glasses. Even Stephanie's denim-blue school backpack sports a parade of cow key chains that dangle from the front pockets.

Their enthusiasm for their country home and the life that goes with it is almost contagious.

"Our home is so peaceful and serene," Sharon explains. "Home to me is not just where you go lay your head. It's a place of friends, family and passion. The life we live is worth going home to. I can't wait to get back at night to feed my animals. A lot of people can't imagine a life like that. It's so peaceful."

Though Stephanie's bedroom is a preteen getaway brimming with posters of teen actors and her favorite rock groups, the girlie stuff isn't her main interest. In 2005, Stephanie took home the grand champion prize for showmanship at the county fair. Her best friend, 10-year-old Kayla Burlingame (who keeps livestock at Stephanie's family's farm), took the grand champion showmanship award at the 2005 Florida State Fair. Both are die-hard 4-H members who taught themselves to milk cows at Kayla's grandmother's farm in Plant City.

"They can tell you all about the butterfat in milk - it's unbelievable how much knowledge they have," Sharon says. "4-H is an absolutely wonderful program for anyone who wants to get their kids involved."

Last year the girls sold the hogs they raised from piglets for good money at the Pasco County Fair: Stephanie sold her 235-pound hog, Black Eyed Pea, for $2,300, earnings she promptly put into buying a milking machine for her cows. Stephanie keeps a picture of herself posing with the owners of a livestock auction house who bought the pig. Though she was sad, she didn't cry much, she says, because she knew all along that she wasn't raising Black Eyed Pea as a pet.

"Well, they cry even though they know the reality - it's still hard on them," Sharon says. "They fall in love with all their animals; they're so close to them. It takes a lot out of the kids when they have to give them up."

The girls keep meticulous records - without parental help - on all of their livestock expenses, including the costs associated with feeding and worming, as well as expenses incurred at shows and fairs. They maintain pregnancy records and lactation records and keep an inventory on everything relating to their animals.

"They do it by themselves. I have never seen two people work harder than those girls," Sharon says. In fact, at an age when most girls are still playing with Barbies, these country girls can tick off the breeds of dairy cows without prompting and explain the intricacies of selling livestock at the county fair with the knowledge of Old Florida farmers.

"The point of it is that the kids are caring for living things as well as following through with projects," says Kayla's mom, Marcy Hampton, who leads the Getter Done 4-H Club in Zephyrhills. (Sharon is the co-leader.) "They learn entrepreneurial skills, that animals are bought and sold and that they go to market," Marcy says. Marcy and Sharon, both in their mid 30s, are also best friends. They bowl together in the same weekly league, take the kids camping, cook meals together (fried chicken and chicken and dumplings are family favorites) and travel the rigorous Florida fair circuit with their children each spring.

The livestock show circuit, which kicks off Jan. 26 with the South Florida Fair, can prove exhausting, but both mothers say it's worth it because of the sense of pride and responsibility it gives their kids.

"Marcy already has a cruise booked for when the last show ends in March," Sharon says with a laugh.

They became hooked on 4-H (the name stands for head, heart, hand and health) at about the same time, too. Marcy, who lives in Zephyrhills, got involved about five years ago when her oldest child - a son, now 13 - wanted to join.

As the moon rose on a recent night, bathing a tall backdrop of pine trees in pale luminescence, the girls grabbed flashlights and headed to the paddock to show off their cows to a visitor.

Kayla, a sixth-grader at Stewart Middle School, is particularly proud of nursing her Jersey cow, Annabelle, back to health from a worrisome leg injury. Stephanie, a sixth-grader at Centennial Middle School, explains that her Jersey cow, Flyer, "is in milk," which means she will show better this year at the county fair because she will have a more defined udder, something judges look for in a cow 2 years old or older.

"If I don't milk her every day, she'll dry up," she explained as Kayla ran and grabbed a 2-liter Pepsi bottle filled with raw milk from the refrigerator.

The girls, who don't drink the raw milk, describe the taste as ultrasweet - "sort of the way milk tastes after it's been in your cereal bowl," Stephanie says. Kayla's grandmother loves to drink it, and a family friend in Tallahassee makes homemade peach ice cream from the milk.

"We haven't tasted it yet, but we want to," Stephanie says.

Later, Marcy and Sharon lingered by the pasture fence and watched as the girls walked comfortably among the cows in the moonlight, exuding an intuitive ease around big animals that comes with daily contact.

At 10 and 12, the girls had it all figured out.

So did their moms.

"Yes, this is totally our life right now," Marcy said. "But we wouldn't trade it for the world."

Said Sharon: "We enjoy it so much because these girls make us enjoy it. When we see the pride and heart they put into these animals, it makes us want to help them. It's a wonderful life. When you have a life like this - with children who are so involved - you just want to get up every morning and keep going."

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 01:48:21]

County, builder agree to studies

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 19, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - An impasse between Pasco County and developers of the proposed 5,000-acre Wiregrass Ranch developments in Wesley Chapel showed signs of ending Wednesday.

County planners said Pulte Homes agreed at a Wednesday afternoon meeting to provide additional traffic studies and alternatives they say could cut down on the major traffic snarls that are predicted with the addition of as many as 16,000 homes at State Road 54 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. County planners and Pulte have been at odds for more than three months because of a county plan to put public roads through the gated communities to ease traffic in the already congested area.

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 01:49:14]

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Can pond go commercial?

A man who has owned a portion of Morrison Pond for decades seeks rezoning, but some say the pond is archaeologically significant.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 19, 2006

LECANTO - Morrison Pond is only a short drive down a dirt path off County Road 491.

Beside it sits what historians say is the oldest home in Lecanto - a cracker cabin built in the 1860s by homesteader John Pike Morrison.

Now a Miami man who owns property next to the pond and part of the pond itself wants the county to designate his part of the pond as commercial land.

But county staffers have recommended that the county's planning board deny the zoning change because the property, they say, is historically and archaeologically significant.

According to a draft report compiled by environmental planner Sue Farnsworth, relics found at the site "span a wide range of cultural occupation."

The site is listed in the Florida Master File of the the Florida Division of Historical Resources, Farnsworth wrote.

"This is definitely an archaeological site . . . of local significance," Farnsworth said Wednesday. And she said it might also be worthy of national recognition.

In his 1999 archaeological study of the county, Gary Ellis said the site may be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

The 3-acre property in question is owned by Ronald R. Sabel of Miami.

Sabel owns a total of about 7 acres off County Road 491, just north of State Road 44 and across from the Lecanto Post Office. Four of those acres are already zoned for commercial use.

But the portion county planners are evaluating is zoned medium density residential.

"I've had the property for 30 years. I never knew it was an archaeological site," Sabel said when reached on his cell phone Wednesday afternoon. "I mean, everything in Florida is an archaeological site."

The 67-year-old retired police officer said he's not a developer. He bought the land 30 years ago and thought maybe he would move to Citrus someday.

"I drove up there and saw the big beautiful oak trees. You just fall in love with it," he said. "There's a lot of charisma up there. Lecanto's a beautiful place."

But now, Sabel said he's decided to sell the property. And he wants to increase the amount of commercial land he can offer to potential buyers.

Pointing to a 1937 aerial photograph of Lecanto that shows the pond, Farnsworth said she has received several phone calls from residents concerned that the project would negatively affect the site's historical value.

Between 1957 and 1960, roads were cut across the top and east of the pond, and during the 1970s Citrus County Mosquito Control dredged silt from the spring at the west side of the pond, according to Farnsworth's report.

That, Farnsworth said, is when artifacts began to surface.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries the pond was used as a watering hole for the cattle and other passersby, she said.

John Grannan, 58, who owns property on the pond, said he worries that whoever buys the property will fill in the pond, paving over old Citrus to make way for the new.

"I wish the county would buy all of this land," he said. "I feel like I'm in a constant state of grieving about the loss of my community."

Geoff Greene, 57, who also owns property on the pond, said he's worried about drainage problems new construction might cause. He said he'd like to see the county take a greater interest in the site.

"This would be a wonderful park," he said.

Sabel's application is slated to go before the Planning and Development Review Board in a workshop Feb. 2 and a hearing on Feb. 16. The County Commission will have the final say.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 01:48:21]

City asks county for help buying pier

Crystal River and county leaders have often differed on development issues, but city officials hope they can agree on the need to keep Pete's Pier public.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 19, 2006

CRYSTAL RIVER - For years, the city of Crystal River and Citrus County government have been at odds over development issues - specifically, the annexing of land to make way for a Wal-Mart.

Now the city is reaching out to the county for help thwarting the would-be developer of Pete's Pier on Kings Bay.

"The City Council of the City of Crystal River would like to assure continued public access to Kings Bay and Crystal River through public ownership of the Pete's Pier property," Crystal River City Manager Phil Deaton wrote in a letter last week.

In the letter, Deaton asked Citrus County Administrator Richard Wesch "if there is any interest in a joint effort to acquire and operate the Pete's Pier property in order to assure continued water access for the boating public of Citrus County."

Wesch said Wednesday that he had not yet responded to the letter.

He said he would circulate it among members of the County Commission and seek their advice.

Commission Chairman Gary Bartell said he was still reviewing the proposal. But he said if the county signed on, it would mark a significant shift in priorities.

The county has already dedicated park impact fee money to improvements to other projects in that area.

"I think it would be counterproductive to what we're trying to do up there," Bartell said. "I'm not willing to reprioritize at this point."

Representatives from NEHI Investments LLC unveiled sketches of a six-story resort hotel in November at the Kings Bay site in November.

Since then, local activists and officials have expressed concerns that the facility could destroy the city's small-town atmosphere, negatively affect nearby waterways and wildlife and restrict public access to the water.

City officials have discussed buying the property, but a survey has not yet been conducted to determine its worth.

In October, Deaton said the asking price was about $11.5-million.

NEHI Investments has not submitted a new proposal for the site, but Deaton said the city may receive one before the end of the month.

Staff writer Elena Lesley contributed to this report. Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified January 19, 2006, 01:48:21]

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Schools mired in delays get help

Construction and permitting problems will keep the two new schools from opening when originally scheduled.

By MARY SPICUZZA
Published January 18, 2006

LAND O'LAKES - At its Tuesday night meeting, the District School Board of Pasco County took action on two emergency items added to the agenda in order to help two of Pasco's new schools facing serious construction delays.

Both Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel and Trinity Oaks Elementary School on Mitchell Boulevard have faced a series of permitting and construction delays, and might not open until January 2007. Depending on construction progress, Trinity Oaks might be able to open in November.

But at Tuesday's meeting, superintendent Heather Fiorentino told board members both schools are struggling with additional problems and asked them to take urgent steps to help the schools open as quickly as possible.

The board then voted to approve spending $330,000 on an intragovernmental agreement to work with the county on a temporary pipe system to provide the Wiregrass Ranch site with water and sanitary sewer services.

The temporary pipe system is to be installed immediately and be left in place until the State Road 56 extension is completed.

"You have to have water and sewer in order to operate schools," district facilities specialist Michael Woodall said.

The district still is deciding where the Wiregrass Ranch High students will be located during the fall semester. They might be placed in portable classrooms at the neighboring John Long Middle School, or hold double sessions with either John Long or Wesley Chapel High.

At the Trinity Oaks Elementary site, private service provider Aloha Utilities has asked the district to pay up to about $198,000 in impact fees, Fiorentino said.

She said Aloha originally asked for about $163,000, but then raised the fees after she sent them a check for the original amount.

The district is considering legal action, she said, arguing that schools do not typically pay impact fees.

Florida statute says school districts do not have to pay impact fees, Fiorentino said.

"Aloha's position is that they're a private company," School Board attorney Dennis Alfonso said. "They're saying you need to pay it or you're not going anywhere with your school."

The board voted to give him the option to take any legal action deemed necessary to open the school.

"The heart and soul of the question is whether they can charge us impact fees," Alfonso said.

[Last modified January 18, 2006, 01:11:13]

What price will residents pay to have dirt roads?

Commissioners consider cheaper road paving to get residents to cover costs.

By GARRETT THEROLF
Published January 18, 2006

Every day, Pasco County residents are forced to whip up a torrent of dust on bumpy drives over hundreds of miles of dirt roads. On Tuesday, commissioners sat down to try to change that.

In a workshop at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey, commissioners said they are beginning to think one solution might be an expansion of the county's controversial paving assessment program.

The current program allows residents surrounding poorly maintained roads to vote whether to improve them and then divide the cost among themselves. In some cases, the County Commission has overruled a decision by residents not to pave and forced the assessment on them anyway.

In the case of rural roads, county commissioners said Tuesday that they would like to modify the current program with additional options such as paving with lower quality mixtures that are less expensive than asphalt.

"For many of these roads, it may now cost (property owners) $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 a property," said County Administrator John Gallagher. "Would (property owners) do it for maybe half the cost?"

The commissioners finished the meeting with an agreement to come back next month for another meeting, at which they will review further defined options provided by staff.

Garrett Therolf covers Pasco county government. He can be reached at 727 869-6232 or at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. His e-mail address is gtherolf@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 18, 2006, 01:36:36]

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Comprehensive plan should be able to stop RV park

A Times Editorial
Published January 17, 2006

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As growth continues to explode throughout Citrus County, fears of out-of-control development loom large. Those concerns are well founded as the county's comprehensive growth plan, the strongest legal bulwark against such a disastrous future, is under increasing attack.

Two current cases are instructive.

A Circuit Court judge last week upheld a settlement between the county and a developer that will allow homes to be built on a waterfront stretch in northwest Citrus County at a density much higher than the law allows.

In what has been described as a "win-win" for the county, the agreement means that the estate of W.W. Caruth Jr. can erect 50 high-end homes on a 70-acre site along the Withlacoochee River. Under the current zoning, only one home per 20 acres would be allowed.

The "win" for the developer is obvious: A lot more money. Victory for the rest of the county is harder to identify.

Certainly, Citrus County will reap property tax and impact fee revenues from the expensive homes that will soon sprout on the site. Much of that money, however, will be eaten up by the costs of providing public services to this new subdivision, which will rise far from any urban center.

The only other financial advantage to the citizens is not money gained but funds the county will avoid spending in a court battle that it was all but certain to lose.

The Caruth family had filed suit claiming that when Citrus County eliminated the mixed-use zoning designation in 2002, thereby reducing the allowed density, it drastically cut the property's value.

The county had no choice but to eliminate mixed-use after a judge, in another land use mess, the Halls River Retreat saga, ordered Citrus to clean up its self-inflicted regulatory wounds.

For good measure, the judge told the county to enforce its own comprehensive plan. Sound advice.

The Caruth site was among the MXU properties directly affected, and thus the developer very likely would have prevailed had the case gone to court. The county has been told that this situation is unique and that this settlement is not setting any legal precedent. Time will tell whether these assurances are true.

In the meantime, another case involving a proposed waterfront development will further test the county's commitment to supporting its growth plan.

Next week, the County Commission will discuss plans for a 499-unit RV park on Big Lake Spivey in Inverness. Even though the county's staff has recommended approval, the county's Planning and Development Review Board has voted against the proposal.

In a comment that spoke volumes, board member Raymond Hughes asked: "Do we have a comprehensive plan or don't we? I don't understand how the county can recommend approval on this."

While the Caruth situation can be chalked up to the county's having to clean up the mess left behind since 1997, when Citrus failed to reconcile major differences between its land use documents, there is little rationale for the County Commission to decide that this massive RV park is a compatible project for this local lake.

Rightly or not, the county commissioners may have thought that their hands were legally tied in the Caruth settlement. That is not the case in the proposed Preservation Pointe project.

The commissioners must not miss this opportunity to demonstrate that they will stand by their obligations to uphold the letter and spirit of the comprehensive plan and manage the rapid-fire growth that is sweeping the landscape.

[Last modified January 17, 2006, 01:25:19]

Hasty commissioners pose threat to history

A Times Editorial
Published January 17, 2006

In a place where institutional racism thrived for many years, the proposal before the Hernando County Commission should have merited a full hearing.

Instead, the commission was indifferent to the request of an expert who politely asked for an extra seven minutes to offer his concerns that the graves of an African-American community are at risk of being disturbed. After refusing to grant the archaeologist sufficient time to make his presentation, the commission voted to leave the search for the century-old graves up to the developer.

In doing so, commissioners disregarded the findings, and some even impugned the integrity, of Bill Burger by suggesting he was making a "sales pitch." In fact, Burger had nothing to gain from the project being delayed until a more thorough search for remains could be completed.

And a more thorough search is exactly the approach the commission should have insisted upon before granting the developer, Windward Homes, permission to rev up the bulldozers and begin excavating the property, about 2 miles north of Weeki Wachee on the west side of U.S. 19. Windward plans to expand the Glen Lakes subdivision by 842 homes.

Speculation that a graveyard is located at the turpentine-harvesting hamlet of Freeman was fueled by turn-of-the-last-century maps, which acknowledged the existence of an African-American community known as Freeman. It has been impossible for local historians to dredge up details, but a 1914 U.S. Department of Agriculture map clearly shows symbols of a church and a cemetery near the proposed development site. And an uncorroborated report in a history book about Hernando County shows that Freeman had a post office.

Burger wanted to tell commissioners that the developer's search was imprecise and that they should not allow earth movers to begin work until a more comprehensive study was completed. But the commission did not hear him out, impatiently denying his request for a few extra minutes to share his findings and opinion.

The board's policy generally does not allow third parties to speak beyond three minutes at its hearings. But as it does with most of its policies, the board makes exceptions. Given the sensitive nature of this situation, and the possibility that a piece of history is at risk of being lost forever, it would have been appropriate to exercise that flexibility in this instance.

[Last modified January 17, 2006, 01:25:19]

Planning board did not listen to residents' zoning opinions

Letters to the Editor
Published January 17, 2006

As a resident and "big bucks" taxpayer of the Woodland Waters subdivision, I'd like to know who granted this unelected group, the Hernando County Planning and Zoning Commission, such brazen powers? Since when does an issue that affects so many taxpayers' quality of life get voted on without discussion or public input?

The fact that there was some resident participation at a previous (holiday season) meeting should not negate their right to speak further on the subject, especially when several of the issues raised at the previous meeting were deferred until the Jan. 9 meeting.

I don't think anyone asked for or expected a change in the zoning for the properties in question. However, there were many side issues relating to the requested approvals that should have been throughly discussed and the residents' comments considered.

Why were our concerns about the proposed commercial zoning ignored? Could the board not at least respect the fact that many people made sacrifices to attend this meeting, but were denied a chance to speak? Are we not still living in America? Does our opinion not count?

-- Harry Spicer, Weeki Wachee

 

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As creek awaits its rescue, its life wilts

Funding and other problems have delayed plans to clean up Stevenson Creek. Now, dredging could begin this summer. Neighbors sure hope so, anyway.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published January 16, 2006

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CLEARWATER - Life at Stevenson Creek is still.

A man in a rowboat passes by mangroves and under a bridge, the splashes of his oars giving way to the rumble of a truck overhead.

"It's peaceful," said R.J. Smith, 62, a retired welder who's lived on the creek 14 years.

But underneath the water is a different story altogether.

Stevenson Creek is one of Pinellas County's most polluted bodies of water, filled with a chocolate-colored muck that has pushed the creek's estuary toward death. A habitat for fish and aquatic plants has been ruined.

Storm runoff from 6,300 acres has carried pesticides, fertilizers and other debris into the creek. Levels of nitrogen and phosphorus have been perilously high.

The problems are well-documented.

Now a key piece toward the creek's recovery could be coming soon.

The Army Corps of Engineers says a massive dredging of the creek estuary could begin this summer. As much as 180,000 cubic yards of muck - more than 36-million gallons - will be pulled from the body of water, which empties into the Intracoastal Waterway just south of Sunset Point Road.

It's a project that will cost nearly $7-million and is part of a larger $35-million effort to prevent flooding while cleaning up pollution and restoring wildlife habitat at Stevenson Creek.

Smith, who along with neighbors has heard about the dredging plans, says the restoration is critical.

"It's solid muck," said Smith, pointing toward his boat dock. "If you jumped in there right now, you'd be stuck in mud to your waist."

Neighbors of the creek have fought for improvements, including dredging, for 20 years. But until recently, little has been done.

In 2003, the corps adopted an action plan in conjunction with city officials to clean up the creek. Separately, the city and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud, created a watershed management plan to improve water quality and the vegetated water habitat.

Some parts of those plans are further along than others.

The transformation of the former Glen Oaks Golf Course into a 22-acre stormwater retention site should be finished this year. The $7.6-million project will filter about 16,500 pounds of silt and debris, and hundreds of pounds of other harmful minerals, from the creek each year.

The plan for Glen Oaks on Court Street, across from St. Cecelia Interparochial School, will also defend 78 nearby homes and apartments from flooding, city officials say.

Work on the estuary restoration could take between nine and 18 months, said assistant city engineer Al Carrier.

The program was initially delayed while the city attempted to find a location to dump the dried muck. Now money issues have seemed to slow the project.

Since 2002, Congress has appropriated $3.5-million to supplement allocated city dollars to fund the creek restoration, said Harry Glenn, an aide to Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo. But that money was instead funneled into other corps projects, Glenn said.

Richard Bonner, a deputy district engineer for the corps, said federal dollars are not allocated to specific projects as Glenn suggests. The money is pooled and used as needed.

Late last year, Rep. Young inserted specific language into an appropriations bill ordering the corps to fund the Stevenson Creek project.

Bonner said the corps is waiting for permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection before work can begin.

"Mr. Young wants this project to move forward," Glenn said. "Congressman Young has been working on this issue four or five years now."

People living on the creek, like Smith, say they have suffered through the delays.

At low tide, the water virtually drains from the estuary. From shoreline to shoreline, it's muck. As pretty as the creek is at high tide, it is as nasty at low tide, Smith said.

No neighbor will declare victory until the work has started. Smith said some still fear that nothing will happen.

"The only way the politicians might dredge this creek," Smith said, "is when they figure out how to make a buck off of it."

[Last modified January 16, 2006, 00:41:10]

Developers become public enemy No. 1

Letters to the Editor
Published January 16, 2006

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Re: Mobile homeowners must unite against developers, letter, Dec. 28.

 

I'm sure there is a "top 10" list of vocations that the general public trusts the least. If so, I'm also certain that politicians and/or lawyers rank high on that list. My No. 1 on the list is land developers.

Land developers completely disregard the welfare of residents displaced by their money-grabbing projects, i.e., purchasing mobile home parks to make room for condominiums and townhouses to accommodate the wealthy.

Land developers couldn't care less about the impact their building schemes have on the roads, schools, water supply or environment. They remind me of sea gulls: swoop in, do their thing and swoop out. They don't have to worry about the mess they've created or have to live with the misfortunes they inflict on a community.

Residents of Pinellas County should be angry with the county commissioners who don't have the courage to stand up to land developers. Commissioner Susan Latvala should be chastised for her glib and smug statement,"Well, it is inevitable. There is nothing we can do to stop progress." What an inane thing to say.

Latvala needs to be reminded that not everything is inevitable and there are ways to stop what these land developers are doing that disrupt residents' quality of life. The way to do it, Ms. Latvala, is to simply say no!

Land developers have run rampant over the county and city commissions for years. It's high time to get tough with these developers. Commissioners need to act much more responsible in their obligation to all the average residents, not just to the elite.

-- John S. Jeltes, Dunedin

Mobile home reimbursement actually tantamount to theft

I have been following the numerous stories you have published regarding the plight of mobile home owners when their park owners receive and accept an offer from a developer.

I am puzzled as to why what I view as the major issue here has not been addressed. Our elected officials, who are supposed to be protecting the residents of our county, are literally allowing the landowners and developers to steal millions of dollars from those homeowners.

Although it is true that old single-wide homes like those in Golden Lantern Park do not have great value, I'd be willing to bet that the median price prior to the potential sale would have been in the $7,000 range. Because there is literally no place to which the homeowner could move a unit this old, the $3,000 moving reimbursement is a moot point. That leaves the homeowner with a $1,375 reward, under state law, for abandoning his property: a theft of $5,625.

Although you might say this is not a lot, it certainly is for those being forced out of homes they own. But let's take this reasoning to another level.

Harbor Lights Park is a beautifully maintained community. I would estimate that the median sale price per home prior to this year would be in the $40,000 range. Again, these homes have no place to move to, so the double-wide $6,000 moving allowance is moot. That leaves the homeowner with his $2,750 abandonment fee for a double-wide.

Let's see: The $40,000 minus the $2,750 means that $37,250 multiplied by 313 homes equals $11,659,250 of assets will have been stolen from these 400 people by the landowners and the developers with the approval of our elected officials. What is wrong with this picture?

This is grand larceny under the guise of improving our community. The developers and landowners should be forced to fairly reimburse each homeowner for the property being confiscated. This is supposed to be guaranteed to us by our Constitution.

-- Roger E. Nauheimer, Clearwater

 

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What's happening

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 15, 2006

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"When I was a kid about 10 years old on Siesta Key, I would ride my horse, Grey Ghost, out on the beach at night. Riding anywhere in the moonlight is an experience but what I saw on Florida beaches then isn't here anymore," says Regina Stahl Briskey, cowboy artist from Alachua, north of Gainesville, as she took a nostalgic look back into a part of Florida's history.

On an easel rested one of Briskey's paintings, Moonlight Riders, is a picture of three cowboys on a moonlit night with stars playing behind them in a dark sky. Briskey expressed her concern for the history of Florida's past rural ways and how she strives to keep alive parts of that history through her artwork.

Briskey is one of eight Florida Cowboy Artists whose works are on display through Feb. 5 at the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City. In addition to Briskey, the Florida Cowboy Artists are Sean Sexton, Linda Brown, Hobby Campbell, Eldon Lux, Bill Roberts, Donna Leeward, an d Brad Phares. All of the artists are current or retired cattlemen, ranchers, cowboys or cowgirls. Several of the artists gathered for an opening reception at the museum on Jan. 7.

The artists share a concern for the love of Florida outdoors, an appreciation for cattle, horses, farming, and a keen desire to show a rural side of Florida through their artwork.

They also voice a concern that many of the scenes common to rural Florida are passing and they feel it important to preserve those scenes through their artwork, particularly paintings.

Sexton lives on a 600-acre spread, Treasure Hammock Ranch, just west of Vero Beach in Indian River County. With 300 head of cattle, Sexton says with a soft laugh, "I am mayor of cow city."

"I am pretty much 50/50; a balance of artist and cattleman," says Sexton, whose family has been in the cattle business since the early part of the last century. He opens a sketch book, one of about 120 that he has kept since 1974. It is filled with meticulous detailed writing, finely executed sketches and an occasional old photograph. Sexton explains that he is a writer and an artist and together those give him a picture that the puts onto canvas or creates in a sketch.

Pale blue eyes gently smile from under the rim of a cowboy hat as Sexton tells of a time when he was 6, and his teacher posted one of his pictures on the door to the classroom. Sexton chuckles and says, "I've been believing I'm an artist ever since."

It's clear that more than Sexton thinks he is an artist with showings in many galleries in Florida.

Sexton took painting lessons at the age of 8. From there he has grown to not only paint but also to write, publishing in 2002, Waldo's Mountain, A Brief History of a Small Elevation. The story is preservation of family history for Sexton as it tells the story of how his grandfather, Waldo Sexton, a highly imaginative man, took a pile of dredged dirt and, in the late 1950s, created what he termed a mountain on the flat land of Florida's east coast. Filled with family photographs, signed copies of Waldo's Mountain are on sale at Pioneer Florida Museum and Village.

Two brown and white longhorns peer out of the painting titled Cattle Drive 95. The heifers, sort of renegades, were part of the 150th anniversary Florida cattle drive, explained artis t Linda Ballantine Brown of Williston in Levy County.

"They were always lagging behind and always seemed to be posing," says Brown who captured the heifers on canvas.

Cutting trees robs county

Letters to the Editor
Published January 15, 2006

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Re: Spring Hill's future stirs in Sterling, Jan 8 Times:

 

I, along with letter writer Ann Ratajik, ask where is the "countryside parklike setting?" Notice the absence of trees? Is Hernando County a place that destroys the trees and names streets in honor of them? Destroys all the native trees and plants exotics in their place?

Cut down all the trees, entice families to move into the area and have them breathe all the air that should have been filtered by the trees and then they will develop breathing problems that send them scrambling to doctors who will write them prescriptions for medication to ease their breathing problems?

So, by destroying all the trees we are providing jobs and money to the medical profession, landscapers, and nurseries.

God put the trees on earth for man to enjoy, not destroy. In the very beginning, the Book of Genesis, we learn about trees. In the first book of the Bible there is reference to the first specific tree: the tree of life (also referenced in Revelations). When you enter into the woods or forest and rest in the shade of a tree, what do you feel? Many will reply they sense God's pleasure. Will any pleasure from trees be found in Sterling?

Martin Luther said, "In the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold or silver ... God writes the gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars."

Dean Ohlman, writing for RCB Ministries, says that understanding how important trees are to all of life, we may decide to reject the old adage that a dog is man's best friend and provides a list of some of the things trees do for us: provide oxygen, collect and absorb dust and other atmospheric pollutants, etc.

We have failed to care for the natural world (especially the trees) God has entrusted to us.

-- Ray Heddleson, Spring Hill

Renovation time for 'Save Our Homes'?

A Florida law that helps keep property taxes in check has kept some stuck in homes. A proposal would let you take your cap with you.

By JONI JAMES
Published January 15, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - During the blazing runup in home values in Florida, the state's popular cap on property taxes has developed a reputation as something of a prison.

Sure, longtime homeowners have enjoyed the fruits of higher home values without the pain of higher taxes because taxable home values cannot rise more than 3 percent a year.

But the down side of that good fortune is that people who want to move, into bigger or even smaller homes, face a sharply higher tax bill as they surrender the tax cap.

But that may not be true much longer.

What looked like a radical idea a year ago - to allow Florida homeowners to take part of their tax cap with them when they buy a new home - isn't so radical anymore.

Leaders in the Legislature, including the next Senate president, Ken Pruitt, are embracing the idea that Florida's "Save Our Homes" property tax cap needs to be portable so Floridians have one less hurdle to buying a new home, be it empty-nesters wanting to downsize to a condominium or a young family needing more bedrooms.

"The status quo is becoming untenable," said Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, one of the proposal's sharpest critics last year, who now embraces it. "A lot of people are trapped in their homes."

Just a year ago, the idea stalled in both chambers over criticism of its long-term effect on local governments, which are funded almost entirely by property tax revenues, and the potential to shift more of the tax burden to business and rental properties.

Further, the plan could sharply exacerbate the inequities that Save Our Homes already has created in the property tax base. Right now, two neighbors in identical homes can pay radically different taxes if they bought their homes years apart.

But the climate for changing the system has grown more favorable in Tallahassee as lawmakers have heard complaints from constituents and fears have risen that the real estate market might be cooling.

Seven bills addressing the issue already are filed for the 2006 legislative session. And last week, in the first hearing, the proposal that had been shut out last year sailed unanimously through the Senate Community Affairs Committee with bipartisan support. It faced sharp objections by the Florida Association of Counties.

"Four years ago I got laughed out of committee," quipped Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, who has filed the bill repeatedly with Rep. Carl Domino, R-Palm Beach Gardens. "Now everyone likes it. It's great."

Because the original Save Our Homes was done by constitutional amendment, anything to change it would have to be approved by the voters as well. First, 60 percent of the members of both chambers would have to agree to put it on the November ballot as a proposed constitutional amendment. Then, a simple majority of voters is required to adopt it.

Here's how the Domino-Haridopolos proposal would work: A homeowner with a house whose taxable value is $100,000, but who sells it for $300,000 would get to take the difference ($200,000) with him or her to the new home. If the new home cost $400,000, they would only pay taxes as if it was worth $200,000.

There are some limits.

The homeowner would only enjoy the full benefit of the transfer if the new home being purchased cost at least as much as the sales prices of the old one. When buying a less expensive home, the property owner would only be able to transfer a partial, pro-rated benefit. And no homeowner could use the law to have a new home with a lower taxable value than the one they just sold.

Domino contends that rule means Florida's local governments won't suffer. Plus, contends Pruitt, local governments could use a diet: Property tax collections have doubled in the past decade to $22.4-billion, far faster than the state's population growth.

But critics, state economists, and even Gov. Jeb Bush, see it differently in a state where property taxes pay for everything from schools and police to parks and senior citizen services.

They say the plan would slow the growth in the state's property tax collections because it would remove a key reason Florida's Save Our Home hasn't had more impact on property tax collections. Every time a home is sold in Florida, it's taxable value is reset based on current market values.

Remove that mechanism and Florida counties, cities and schools would lose as much as $5.4-billion annually by 2012-13 and much more into the future, state economists estimated last year.

Domino disputes the projection because he said the economists didn't consider that some homes' taxable values would be readjusted when their owners left the state or died. A new estimate is expected to be set this week.

"I think it's a great idea, but it has just a huge out-year (future) fiscal impact," Bush said last week. "Cutting other people's taxes is appropriate sometimes, but you've got to be (careful)."

But Bush doesn't have any formal role in whether the measure makes the ballot. Unlike laws passed by the Legislature, which Bush can veto or sign, joint resolutions to place ballot questions before the voters don't require the governor's signature.

One clear hurdle to the plan does remain: House Finance and Tax Committee Chairman Fred Brummer, R-Apopka, who for two years has kept Domino's plan from being heard in his committee. On Friday, he said he still doesn't like it.

"I'll hear it after the "All-Hell Hockey Team' is announced," Brummer said. "And that takes at least a year after hell freezes over."

In fact, Brummer is a key critic of the original Save Our Homes amendment.

"It's the perfect reverse Robin Hood because it steals from the poor and gives to the rich," he said. "It provides the greatest value to the most expensive homes."

Indeed, as home values have escalated, so has the Save Our Home benefit for wealthy homeowners. Last year, owners with homes valued at more than $500,000 accounted for 49 percent of the Save Our Homes exemption though they only made up 19 percent of Florida's owner-occupied homes.

House Speaker Allan Bense could intervene. Last week, he made no promises, but noted, "There are folks hurting out there, I would like to provide some help."

Even Florida's Association of Counties has changed its tactics. After outright opposing the plan last year, this year it's telling lawmakers it is aware there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

But the association wants lawmakers to wait to hear recommendations from the committee of experts that will be formed next year as part of the state's mandated 20-year review of tax and finance issues. The committee's suggestions will be put before voters as amendments to the state Constitution in 2008.

So far, there's little sympathy for the idea, particularly in South Florida, where rising insurance prices are piling into an already-expensive house market. Sales of existing homes in the region were down by as much as 25 percent in November in some counties.

"I'm thinking of my 86-year-old grandmother, and if she wanted to move or needed to move, what we should do," said Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, who is expected to become Senate president in 2008 and voted for the Domino plan Tuesday.

"I can't go home and tell her our plan is to wait two more years."

Joni James can be reached at jjames@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 10:35:25]

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Jan 14, 2006

Cattle camp convenes

rreyes@hernandotoday.com


BROOKSVILLE – Marlene’s black hair was shampooed, clipped, brushed and blow-dried. She was being pampered and she didn’t complain.

Robbie Sand took a step back to admire Marlene.

“That’s a really classy lookin’ heifer,” Sand said. “(She’s) got a gorgeous hair coat.”

Sand, a student at the University of Florida and a member of UF’s Livestock Judging Team, was in Brooksville Saturday to give local 4-H Club members tips on how to make their cattle pretty enough for shows at local and state fairs.

The cattle clinic, dubbed “It’s a Southern Thing,” started at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Becky Wing’s 10-acre ranch on Mae Hight Road east of Brooksville. Wing’s club, the Be A Champ 4-H of Hernando County, sponsored the clinic, which drew about 65 participants from as far south as Sarasota and from as far north as Jacksonville.

Wing said 4-H clubs, and “cattle camps” such as the one held Saturday, present a positive activity for children and teens that “keep them off the street” and prevent them “from being barefoot and pregnant” at a young age.

It’s a learning experience, Wing said, one that Sand was willing to provide with helpful tips and tricks to get cattle properly groomed for competition.

Marlene, a 1-year-old heifer belonging to Wing, was Sand’s primary visual aid for the first half of the clinic, which ran until 4 p.m.

“Start from the back and work forward,” Sand said, describing the proper method of combing a young bovine’s thick hair. “Have the hair go in a constant direction. Remember: wash forward, brush forward, blow dry forward.”

Sand, who has exhibited six award-winning animals and recently completed an internship at the Whitestone farm in Virginia and the Champion Hill farm in Ohio, also gave the audience a cost-cutting tip.

There’s no need to buy luxury soap for $16 a gallon to wash cows, he said. A 99-cent bottle of lemon dishwashing liquid is all a prospective cattle showman needs.

“It’s surprisingly good for their skin and it makes them lemony fresh,” he said.

Each participant at Wing’s cattle clinic brought their own cows. It was a cold morning at the ranch Saturday, with the remnant gusts from the storms the night before barreling through the oaks and meadows. The moos of about 24 cows tied up along the fences and in their metal holding pens (called “chutes”) were the only other noises breaking the relative quiet.

A few of those moos came from the Black Angus cow named Jackson owned by 15-year-old Ben Buttelman of Brooksville. Ben said he’s been showing pigs at the Hernando County Fair for years. This April, at this year’s county fair, he’ll have Jackson up for competition. Jackson will be the first cow he’s ever shown.

“I’m learning about grooming and fitting,” Ben said.

His father, Tom, said the clinic was a great way to learn a few tips through Sand’s demonstrations.

The UF student had another tidbit of advice that not only applied to cattle, but to the teenagers who desired to groom award-winning animals.

“Attitude,” Sand said, “is prime.”

 

Reporter Ray Reyes can be contacted at (352) 544-5283.

Better managing growth is his goal

A retired police officer and political neophyte, Richard Callahan says he doesn't want a seat on the County Commission for power, prestige or money.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 14, 2006

For years, Richard W. Callahan was a casual observer of county politics.

But when he read about the increasing number of building permits issued in the county this year, Callahan decided to take action.

"I know you can't stop development," he said, "but this pace needs to be slowed down."

Last week, Callahan, 61, filed papers to run as a Republican for County Commission District 4. A retired police officer who worked in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, Callahan said he's never run for office before, and until a few months ago, he had never considered it.

"I think we need to limit the development, and we need to make the developers pay for more of the infrastructure," he said.

He said the county should stop development in environmentally sensitive areas and strictly adhere to its comprehensive plan.

As a commissioner, Callahan said he would work toward repealing the gas tax, which he said most affects the people who can least afford to pay it.

"I'm passionate about what I want to do," he said. "I'm not running for the power, the prestige or the money."

Callahan lives in Crystal River with his wife, Patricia.

He said he served in the U.S. Navy and completed two tours in Vietnam. For more than 20 years he worked as a police officer in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

Callahan said he moved to Citrus permanently in 1997 to help his mother. He considers Citrus his adopted home.

From his house in Crystal River, Callahan runs a business, Accurate Data Service. He said the company helps clients all over the world use public records for pre-employment background screenings.

Republican John Thrumston and Democrat Bernie Leven also have filed to run for the District 4 seat.

The incumbent, Commissioner Jim Fowler, a Republican, has not yet announced whether he will seek re-election this year.

[Last modified January 14, 2006, 01:38:14]

Rising Costs Threaten Road Building

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 13, 2006

Skyrocketing construction costs are casting a shadow over millions of dollars in highway projects planned for Pasco County in the coming years.

The cost of road construction grew 60 percent in the past year alone, raising serious questions as to how the state's Department of Transportation will align its budget with the cost for projects such as rebuilding the Interstate 75 bridge over County Road 54, or Wesley Chapel Boulevard, Bob Clifford, head of planning for DOT's Tampa office, told county officials Thursday.

DOT is not ready to cancel or postpone projects, but the agency is taking a hard look at how to deal with escalating prices of materials, labor and land, Clifford said.

DOT has more than $300 million in road projects planned for Pasco between 2006 and 2011. Most of those projects aim to ameliorate Pasco's explosive growth.

A combination of concrete demand from China, a shortage of asphalt plants and rising land costs related to wetland mitigation threaten to overwhelm the DOT's plans for projects across the state, Clifford said.

"It's what we call a perfect storm," he said.

Even fill dirt is anything but dirt cheap any more, hitting $50 a cubic yard in some parts of the state, Clifford said.

Construction costs are climbing just as DOT and the county get a grip on the chronic problem of getting land for new roads and expansions.

Clifford hopes a softening in residential and commercial construction will free up money, material and manpower for roads.

DOT has long built financial cushions into is projects to handle unexpected price spikes . However, the increases now appearing in the construction market could devour those cushions, Clifford said.

"We're looking at sharing costs where possible," he said.

For example, DOT could buy a single large tract of land to offset wetlands destroyed by a multitude of road projects. Offsetting damage project by project gets harder to do as Pasco's land prices push ever higher, Clifford said.

Private wetland banks have not gotten off the ground in Pasco because the sharp rise in land prices makes them unprofitable, according to Don Ross, a wetland banker in Sarasota County.

The state and county could share the land bank to offset each government's future road projects, Clifford said.

County Commissioner Jack Mariano, newly elected head of the county's transportation planning board, favors sharing land costs with DOT.

He would like to use the county's new environmental land acquisition program to buy land for mitigation banks.

Mariano is less willing to share when the question turns to Pasco losing projects to rising construction costs.

"Certain counties expect to drop off the work lists," Mariano said. "We've done a good job of getting on the DOT's work lists, so we've got to keep on them."

Women Seek To Block South County Rezonings

Published: Jan 11, 2006

RUSKIN - Mariella Smith and Antonia Singleton are trying to block development plans that they say threaten Ruskin's small-town character and environmental health.

Smith, of Ruskin, and Singleton, of Riverview, are environmental activists who have been talking with community groups about their opposition to several Ruskin rezonings and asking for support.

A zoning hearing master is to hear arguments in favor of the rezonings Tuesday and make a recommendation to the county commission, which will vote on them March 7.

Smith and Singleton are asking area residents to oppose a package of three rezonings by developer Manatee Bay Associates.

The package includes a land swap deal reached by the developer and the county and the rezoning of about 75 acres along the Little Manatee River.

The county would give the developer 13 acres near the former Bahia Beach Marina in exchange for 80 acres on the north side of Shell Point Road.

That parcel would be undeveloped and left as a nature preserve.

On the south side of the Shell Point Road, Manatee Bay Associates is proposing 360 houses and town homes and some commercial space.

Richard McGinnis, spokesman for Manatee Bay Associates, issued a news release saying the developer was making changes in its plans based on community input.

One of the environmentalists' main concerns is that the proposed development would close off a major wildlife corridor that animals use to access the Little Manatee River and areas to the south.

Liz Bleau

Builder Told To Revise Carson Road Proposal

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 12, 2006

LAND - O' LAKES - Robert and Joy Hagman have owned their small grove on Carson Road since the late 1980s. Now they want to turn the property into residential development.

On Wednesday, the Hagmans asked the county's Planning Commission for the rezoning they need to turn their 9.5 acres into 50 town houses and six single-family homes on Lake Padgett.

The proposal passed the county's Development Review Committee in November.

But it hit a buzz saw this week when neighbors, many of them long-time residents of the Carson Road area, urged planning commissioners to reject the plan.

Instead, commissioners gave the developer, Mobley Homes of Tampa, until March to come up with an acceptable plan.

Neighbors said the proposal is out of character with the neighborhood, where most people live on multiacre lots.

"Recently, we've been bombarded by civilization moving in on us," said Sundi Wilsky, who described herself as a fourth-generation resident of the area.

The proposal also would overwhelm Carson Road, neighbors said.

The 19-foot-wide road runs east from U.S. 41 north of State Road 54 and is a popular back door to Village Lakes Shopping Center.

Carson Road is lined with drainage ditches and is just wide enough for two cars to pass, residents said.

The road is paved to within about a foot of its full right of way and is lined on both sides with power poles. That limits how much it can be widened to accommodate the extra traffic the Hagman project would generate, Mobley spokeswoman Tanya Stewart said.

Stewart offered to repave Carson from the entrance of her project to U.S. 41 and suggested adding a left-turn lane to accommodate new traffic her company's project creates.

Some planning commissioners were unconvinced Mobley's project would work as envisioned.

"This is almost a no-win situation for anybody who wants to develop there because Carson Road isn't going to change anytime soon," Commissioner Calvin Branche said.

"I can't conceive of it being anything but a complete traffic jam and detrimental to the people out there," Commissioner Hugh Townsend said.

As commissioners lined up against the project, Chairman Charles Grey suggested Mobley revise its plans after consulting with its neighbors and return in March for further consideration.

"We have to look at what's best for all concerned," Grey said.

Also on Wednesday, planning commissioners approved a rezoning for a narrow 19.24-acre tract bisected by Bolton Road in Hudson. The development will be called Dream Catcher Estates and will have 76 single-family homes.

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County Considers Northeast Growth

By JULIA FERRANTE jferrante@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 11, 2006

DADE CITY - Big landowners in northeast Pasco could pack in more rooftops on parcels 100 acres or larger under regulations being considered by the county commission.

The caveat: Half the property must be dedicated to horse stables, golf courses, citrus groves or some other type of open space to preserve the rural feel between State Road 52 and County Road 41, east of Bellamy Brothers Boulevard.

Whether those rules should apply to a proposed rural transitional area farther west or in some central portions of the county has not been determined. Pasco Growth Manager Sam Steffey has asked the board to authorize a study of the State Road 52 corridor, where development pressures are prevalent.

At a meeting Tuesday, Commissioner Ann Hildebrand questioned whether so-called conservation subdivisions are an appropriate alternative for developing transitional areas.

Commissioner Ted Schrader, who represents east Pasco, championed conservation subdivisions as a way to allow landowners to build more houses in closer proximity while preserving vistas. He noted that the open spaces may be used for horseback riding trails or even citrus groves.

"They can continue to live on open space and continue to do what they're doing," he said. "These can be equestrian developments or they can lease to citrus farmers."

Hildebrand argued that not every landowner is going to have enough property to dedicate to agricultural or equestrian pursuits. She also wondered what will happen if the golf courses or citrus groves go out of business.

Chief Assistant County Attorney Barbara Wilhite said conservation subdivisions may be a viable option, or the board may come up with another alternative. In any case, developers should receive some sort of incentive, such as increased residential density, to encourage conservation.

Also Tuesday, commissioners:

• Introduced an ordinance to prohibit airboats on Cherry Lake in Land O' Lakes. Airboats already are banned on Bell Lake, Crews Lake and Lake Thomas. Airboat vendors argue the county could limit noise instead by requiring that airboats have mufflers. Public hearings are scheduled for next month.

• Introduced an ordinance to change the membership requirement for volunteers of organizations sponsoring bingo games from three months to 30 days. The volunteers also must have "other meaningful duties or participation" in the organization besides bingo.

• Introduced an ordinance to lower the threshold for master planned unit developments so that developers would have to conduct traffic studies.

• Denied a request to place 6 acres east of Little Road into conservation through Pasco's environmental lands acquisition program. The property does not meet the program criteria.

• Agreed to increase service fines for dangerous dogs to more accurately reflect the cost of county investigations.

• Agreed to reimburse S&R Fastener Co. Inc., which manufactures and supplies automotive epoxies, sealers, adhesives, screws, bolts and fasteners, $14,049 for impact fees, rather than $10,537 previously authorized. The Pasco Economic Development Council requested the wrong amount at a meeting last month.

Planning For Growth Amid Green Spaces

By JULIA FERRANTE jferrante@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 10, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - Many new and longtime residents, developers and county officials agree the hilltop vistas and rural lifestyle of northeast Pasco are something to treasure.

Creating regulations to balance preservation of green spaces with property rights is, however, an ongoing point of contention.

About 75 people shared their views with the county commission at an all-day workshop Monday at the West Pasco Government Center. As part of an ongoing revision of the county's comprehensive growth plan, the board is considering a rural protection area between State Road 52 and County Road 41. The regulations, in part, would allow for clustered development on parcels larger than 100 acres, provided half the property is left as open space.

Members of Northeast Pasco Concerned Citizens, some of whom helped formulate the regulations, remain strong advocates of the changes. They argue a rural protection district and so-called conservation subdivisions will bring about controlled growth while allowing struggling farmers to make profits on their land.

An opposing group, East Pasco Agricultural Landowners, said the regulations are too detailed and will transfer growth decisions from the local level to the state. Clarke Hobby, a lawyer for the group, said many rules could be added to Pasco County's land development code, although the state still would have oversight.

Lawyer David Smolker, who also represents the agricultural landowners, argued county officials are "legislating the aesthetics" of northeast Pasco. He said conservation subdivisions should be optional.

"If you can accomplish it with a carving knife, you shouldn't do it with a sledgehammer," he said.

Concerned Citizens member Carol Crews countered that a "sledgehammer" approach is needed.

"We need to keep some rural in Pasco County," she said, but "we're not saying, 'Stop growth.' Why should we suffer if agriculture is failing?"

Renie Jordan, whose family has been in the citrus business for generations, said agricultural landowners should have equal say.

"When you put a rural classification, you become separate, segregated," she said.

Rick Millian, a lawyer for the Pasco Building Association, asked whether developers would be allowed to provide water and sewer service to clustered developments, an expensive proposition that technically would not comply with a county ordinance. County planning consultant Frances Chandler Marino said exceptions would be made for conservation subdivisions.

Also as part of the growth plan revisions, commissioners agreed to modify a rule regarding development on "coastal, high-hazard" areas after engineer and building association member Robert Fudge argued the measure would make no difference if a major hurricane hit Pasco.

Officials still must resolve the legal quandary of zonings in which property is designated for one use on zoning maps and another on future land-use maps.

Board members reached a consensus to grandfather in commercial land uses in effect in 1991, but they did not decide how to deal with residential zoning conflicts.

"It's a very difficult issue in this county because of the extent to which it occurs, particularly in rural areas," Marino said.

Regulations for employment centers - large areas for office, industrial, retail and high-density residential development - also present a challenge. The new plan does not specify whether the specified split should be applied to individual parcels or to the whole center.

Sound, Fury Arise From Plan's Details

By TOM JACKSON tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 10, 2006

At the outset of the daylong proceedings, county commission Chairman Steve Simon asked for one thing: specifics. This was a workshop, he said, not a meeting of the Pasco Speechmaking Society. No generalized moaning; no purple prose.

Give Mr. Chairman from New Port Richey this as he gears up (presumably) to seek his third term on the board: He gets what he wants. Owners of large portions of northeast Pasco, developers and the lawyers who represent both groups are, specifically, edgy to the point of fury about proposed changes to the county's comprehensive land-use plan.

Specifically, they reject the amount of specificity included in the plan pertaining to the rolling, rural semi-quadrant that encompasses Pasco north of State Road 52 and somewhat east of Bellamy Brothers Boulevard. Because the plan ultimately will be filed with the Florida Department of Community Affairs, including such items as residential density and the number of lanes a road can have deeds, they say, too much authority to Tallahassee.

Nonsense, says Jennifer Seney, boss of Pascowildlife Inc. and a veteran member of the Citizens Advisory Committee, a team whose input in developing the new comp plan surpassed exhaustive. Specificity loads future decisions squarely onto the shoulders of Pasco commissioners, she says; vagueness in the plan of the sort apparently preferred by East Pasco Agricultural Landowners would lead to trouble, not to mention constant snooping by the DCA.

Headache Central

The commission chamber was no place for land-use lightweights Monday; speakers, commissioners, staff and the county's Orlando-based consultant threw around terms such as "rural transition area," "conservation subdivision," "shared access points" and "interconnectivity."

For a county previously guilty of making it up as it went along, the jargon reflects a degree of detail commissioners hope to stuff into its new land-use plan ranging from bewildering to nearly unworkable.

For instance, don't get developers started on interconnectivity, the practice of linking subdivisions with side or back roads off main thoroughfares. Suppose Subdivisions A and B appear on S.R. 52 five miles apart; they wouldn't interconnect. Now Subdivision C arrives to fill the space between A and B. Does the new developer bear responsibility for linking all three?

Battle Lines Drawn

They could go on. In fact, veteran developer advocate King Helie did: Assume the "employment center" - that is, a large business district - emerges as planned around Interstate 75 and County Road 41, well within the northeast rural preservation region. Where, assuming stringent limitations on multifamily housing and subdivisions of one house per acre, will the presumed thousands who work there eventually live?

It is as one citrus grower, being squeezed by current events, observed, "It's not our responsibility to provide scenic vistas."

On the other hand, Seney says, it is not a government function to "guarantee maximum return on a dollar."

Confused? As one developers' attorney said late in the day, you ought to be. Happily, the folks who will decide what's in and what's not seem in no hurry to surrender their hammers. Specifically, there's still pounding to be done.

Commission Has Chance To Leave Legacy

Published: Jan 8, 2006

The debate over the future of Pasco's last frontier, the geographically unique and largely undeveloped northeast part of the county, will test a county government that has encouraged land development for years. And that's the way it should be, considering the troubling and far-reaching results of this policy.

At a meeting Monday in New Port Richey, county commissioners can take steps to avoid these mistakes of the past by embracing proposed changes to the county's comprehensive land-use plan, the road map for growth and the first Northeast Pasco Special Area Plan.

Of crucial importance is the special area plan, which seeks to protect northeast Pasco from overdevelopment that has ruined other parts of the county. Because of the enormity of the overall review process, we have suggested the commission delay acting on the plan recommendations until it adopts other changes to the comprehensive land-use document. Yet the objective of the special plan should not be questioned.

The study area - from Bellamy Brothers Boulevard north of State Road 52 to the Hernando line and east to the Green Swamp, excluding the municipalities of San Antonio, St. Leo and Dade City - has some of the highest hills in Florida and other vistas not common to the state.

More is at risk than picturesque scenes. Decisions made now will affect the ability of many residents to enjoy a rural lifestyle - a way of living under constant assault by development elsewhere in Pasco and Florida. It should be protected.

Commissioners need only look at the ugly sprawl and horrendous congestion in Wesley Chapel for encouragement to alter its development-friendly attitude and vow to prevent northeast Pasco from becoming another victim. Increasing pressures forced on overcrowded public schools by development should give commissioners added incentive - regardless of new and higher impact fees they adopted the last few years.

Granted, it will be difficult explaining to developers and large landowners why they will not be able to copy high-density development patterns allowed elsewhere in the county. But evaluating development and recognizing when and where changes are needed is well within the authority of county commissioners as growth managers. That's why state law requires governments to comprehensively review their land-use plans every few years.

By saying it's not going to be business as usual, commissioners can leave a legacy in northeast Pasco that no other commission can claim. What a tremendous gift that would be for future generations.

Contemplation Destination Contemplation Destination OUTDOORS

By MIKE DeWITT Tribune correspondent

Published: Jan 8, 2006

DADE CITY - There is something about being in the middle of a forested swamp that reminds me of the cathedrals in Germany my parents were so fond of visiting when I was growing up.

Both are eerily silent but for the echoes of sounds that, although unidentifiable, seem to belong there. Both are dark, beautifully foreboding and ancient. In their colossal midst, one cannot resist being overcome by awe and reawakened by the conviction that our times are but a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of life on earth.

That's what I was thinking when I turned off the main trail and onto the narrow footpath that leads to Stanley Fish Hole. Like fishing, hiking provides ample mental acreage for thinking, and I was happily on my way to Stanley Fish Hole to enjoy all three pursuits.

Swamp Thing

I first learned of Stanley Fish Hole in the recreational guide published by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Also available online, this spiral-bound booklet is a treasure trove of wilderness adventure ripe for the enjoying.

On this day, the guide pointed me to the 67,670 acres of wilderness that is Green Swamp East, a humongous tract of forest that lies just over the eastern boundary of Pasco County.

This eastern expanse of the Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve serves a vital function as well as a recreational one. Acquired by the agency for the purposes of protecting the natural ecological systems that filter and store water, this land also creates habitat for wildlife and, luckily, wilderness enthusiasts.

The recreational guide, however, isn't all that clear about the precise location of Stanley Fish Hole. This was the mystery I wanted to unravel.

"Recreational fishing is good along the Withlacoochee River," the guide reads. "The best access is from [State Road] 471 to Stanley Fish Hole."

That sounded simple enough; I know where 471 is, and I know where it crosses the Withlacoochee River. As it turned out, I needed to know a little more than that.

Five Miles

The news was good. Stanley Fish Hole is tucked back in the swamps about two miles east of 471. In May and June, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission opens the gates of Green Swamp East to vehicle traffic for fishing season. For the remaining 10 months, with the exception of hunting season weekends when vehicle traffic also is permitted, access to Stanley Fish Hole can be gained only by boot leather or bicycle.

I chose the boot leather route. There is something about a wilderness hike that strips the cares and woes of daily life away with delightful efficiency. Combine a day pack and fishing pole, and you're suddenly holding a passport to a magical place where life loosens its shoelaces and takes a breather.

The main grade entrance to Green Swamp East is 6.3 miles north of the intersection of 471 and U.S. 98. I chose to park across 471 - which divides Pasco County from Polk and Sumter counties - on the Green Swamp West side. I'm not quite sure why, but I like crossing borders on foot. My border crossing into Sumter County was satisfying.

The best map to take into Green Swamp East is printed on the FWC brochure. I'd collected one of these on an earlier reconnaissance visit to Green Swamp and tucked it into my backpack. On this map, the route to Stanley Fish Hole is clearly marked, but it lacks the topographical features provided by the Swiftmud version, so I took both.

The hike scales out to about 4.9 miles, and there are two relatively direct trails to get there. I decided to take one on the hike in and the other on the hike out. Both require walking about a mile east to the check station.

I stayed on Main Grade road, an improved east-west road. This leads to Levee Road, another well-traveled conduit that runs north-south. I turned south.

Stanley Fish Hole is a part of the Withlacoochee River headwaters, also known as the Withlacoochee River Swamp. The river serves as the boundary between Sumter and Polk counties, and is also the southern boundary of Green Swamp East.

It's a 3-mile walk from Main Grade Road to Stanley Fish Hole along Levee Road. For the first two miles, it's not the most scenic of treks. But upon crossing Tram Road, hikers find themselves in tall grass and towering cypress. It is there that another surprise awaits.

Orange Blazes

Just south of the intersection of Tram and Levee is an offshoot trail that takes a gentle bend to the east before being swallowed in the lush vegetation of the wetlands. There's no signage to point hikers in this direction, but this is the trail to Stanley Fish Hole.

The soft, loamy earth is a nice change from the hardpan surface of Levee Road. The cypress shade is welcome. Thick islands of saw palmetto rise amid rivers of ferns and bromeliads welcoming the hiking angler with cool relief from a midday sun and the promise of a river for fishing.

I was in a deep state of appreciation, cruising easily along the trail, when I was confronted with the telltale orange-paint blaze announcing I was hiking on the Florida National Scenic Trail. It turns out the Stanley Fish Hole trail plays host to the Florida Trail for about 100 yards before the Florida Trail slips back into the wild.

Five minutes after my Florida Trail hike, the woods erupted into sunlight and I found myself at Stanley Fish Hole, the secret fishing mecca of the Withlacoochee River Swamp.

Gills and Thrills

The recreational guide wasn't mistaken; there is serious fishing to be had here. No sooner had I doffed my day pack than the first splash caught my attention.

The river is about 50 yards wide at this point, and is broken up by stands of bald cypress. The trees along the river's edge soak the weight of their branches in river, creating shady cover that is the "Better Homes and Gardens" equivalent of bass habitat.

I tossed out a lead sinker into the middle of the hole, hoping to be able to gauge the depth. But some structure on the bottom - probably a fallen tree - refused to relinquish it. Bottom structure, too? Be still my heart and break out the beetle spinner.

I had the hole to myself and the fish were biting. The hour yielded three saucer-sized bluegills and no further losses of tackle. That amounts to an outstanding outing in my book. My satisfaction was furthered by my encounter with a very burly alligator.

I've spent a fair amount of time around alligators and I like them. They seem to know something the rest of us don't. Maybe it's the toothy grin, maybe it's their ultra-confident demeanor. In any case, they are a creature to be admired.

This particular fellow put on a show for me. For all the times I've spent around gators, with the exception of documentary television, I've never seen one feed. It is a thrilling and awe-inspiring experience.

It was the huge geyser of water that grabbed my attention. I'd noticed this 8-footer cruising around, but didn't think much more about him. A cruising alligator is a pretty mellow sight - until they decide it's time to eat.

The gator buried his snout in a submerged hole on the bank like a guided missile, twisting and thrashing with muscular focus. He ripped and tore and dug for his prey with the determination of a great white shark. It is a scene both terrifying and fascinating to witness.

He emerged with an immobile mass of bloody black fur or feathers - it was impossible to tell which - then vanished beneath the black water without a ripple.

I walked back to the Jeep with the image of that feeding alligator tattooed on my mind and marveling at nature's mood swings. I had enjoyed her solitude, shared her bounty and relaxed in her peaceful embrace. Yet before our visit drew to a close, she left me something else to ponder - the grand scheme, the fleeting nature of life and what can happen in a blink of an eye.

I wonder what happened to that guy named Stanley?

Spring Hill's future stirs in Sterling

In the new Sterling Hill subdivision, affluent young residents could eventually attract higher-end stores to the community.

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published January 8, 2006

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SPRING HILL - "Escape to Perfection!" reads one advertisement for Sterling Hill, the new 1,250-home subdivision straddling Elgin Boulevard. "Enjoy your family in a quiet countryside park-like setting."

"Awaken your senses at Sterling Hill, a community that has it all!" reads another.

Sterling Hill is likely the last subdivision of its size that will be built within the sprawling, ill-defined borders of Spring Hill, a patchwork of a community founded on the sandhills of western Hernando County nearly 40 years ago.

In those four decades, critics of suburban sprawl around the country have enjoyed a measure of vindication. As predicted, suburbanites became increasingly reliant on the automobile, with its attendant ills: skyrocketing road costs, a dearth of pedestrian life, rising oil prices and steadily worsening air pollution.

Regardless, the brisk sales at Sterling Hill prove suburbia's durable allure. With 521 new home starts, it was the fourth-fastest growing community in the Tampa Bay area in the third quarter of 2005, according to the Houston firm Metrostudy. Slowly, on land that was scrub two years ago, the signs of a new community emerge. Even as they replant yards and replace light fixtures, newly minted neighbors have begun to make their mark.

New faces, new priorities

Behind Sterling Hill's high stucco walls bordering Elgin Boulevard, houses are going up as fast as building permits win approval, said Angela Deaton, sales manager for Grant Homes, one of eight builders that bought parcels in the 514-acre subdivision from Devco Development Corp. in Tampa. Grant planned 241 homes in two phases and opened a model home in January 2005. Even as prices have increased, more than half have sold. During one rush, Deaton signed 15 contracts in one day.

Outside the plush appointments of Grant's model home, Sterling Hill is a moonscape of tire tracks, half-built homes and rust-colored dirt. Hammering and grinding machines punctuate an otherwise peaceful afternoon. Contractors have emblazoned "Help Wanted" signs on their trucks, desperate for workers to build the houses as fast as they are sold.

Deaton said she spends half her day on the phone with eager buyers in Virginia, California and Massachusetts, updating them on the progress of their permits. The few occupied houses stand out, with neat landscaping, cars in the driveway or jaunty garden flags fluttering next to newly planted shrubs.

These newcomers are younger and wealthier than Spring Hill's traditional residents, Deaton said. They are a mix of commuters from Tampa, families moving in from out of state and a smattering of well-heeled retirees.

The residents followed the new Suncoast Parkway from Tampa - some driven north by the rising prices closer to the city. And they want more: more schools, more roads, more stores, a stark contrast to some longtime residents who think Hernando County is becoming overdeveloped.

"Build it up," said Sterling Hill resident Eve Senica. "If you don't have progress you might as well be living in the horse and buggy age."

In the mornings, Senica takes her daughter to Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics on the other side of busy Elgin Boulevard. On the way, she eyes the houses cropping up along her street, hoping for new neighbors and friends for her daughter.

Recently separated from her husband, Senica moved to Sterling Hill from Pasco County after she and her former husband sold a three-story house on 10 acres. She had lived in Spring Hill as a teenager until shortly after her marriage, and moved back looking for a mix of the pastoral peace she enjoyed on her Pasco property with shopping and schools nearby.

"When I moved (to Spring Hill), I was 18," Senica said. "There was not much here. A few gas stations, and that was it. And now there's so much." But not enough. For real shopping, she drives an hour to International Plaza in Tampa, she said.

Suburbia, for better or worse

Sterling Hill bears all the hallmarks of a traditional subdivision: curlicued streets feeding a collector road, single-family homes on individual lots and no commercial development. It has some nods to progress, such as sidewalks and restrictions that assure that neighboring houses will not be the same color or model.

It is textbook sprawl - and enormously popular.

"People still want their neighborhood, they still want their home, they still want their yards," said local developer Gary Schraut.

"They are buying into a lifestyle," he added. "It's the middle-class dream. You have a house, a picket fence, your neighbors. And there's nothing wrong with that."

Louis Marquet sees it differently. A planner in the new urbanist mode, Marquet prefers built "places" like the Villages and Celebration to subdivisions like Sterling Hill. "Places" have a thriving street life, with mom-and-pop stores built into a mix of apartments, townhomes and single-family homes. Homebuyers continue to buy into traditional subdivisions because they have little other choice, he says.

"Everyone criticizes sprawl," said Marquet, executive vice president of Leyland Alliance, a New York new urbanist design firm. "What they're really criticizing is the traffic of all these little streets and cul-de-sacs. They're criticizing how far they have to go to find milk or services."

Marquet, like other new urbanists, is convinced that well-designed places will outperform traditional subdivisions in the marketplace. Ask any suburbanite where he or she would like to spend a long weekend, Marquet said, and the answer is typically the type of place new urbanism tries to replicate: Savannah, Ga.; Key West; Charleston, S.C.

While traditional developers of subdivisions such as Sterling Hill remain wary that drastic change will hurt sales, some developers have begun incorporating "town centers" in new subdivisions, a small concession to new urbanism, Marquet said.

"In our time, place-making will have a higher value than making a buck on cul-de-sacs," he said.

Affluence comes standard

The Deltona Corp. billed the original Spring Hill as a self-contained community including churches, stores and parks, sold as an affordable alternative to blighted cities.

But suburbia is not as affordable as it once was. Sterling Hill's homes range in price from the $200s to the high $400s, built for families that need "optional first-floor bonus rooms," service entrances and master retreats. Marble countertops come standard.

The model names aim for a certain cachet: deep-rooted affluence and class by Grant Homes' Cambridge and Devonshire models; the breezy wealth of port towns like Windward Homes' Sanibel, Newport and Savannah; the lush woodlands invoked by Avatar Homes' the Sandpine, the Hickory, the Laurel and the Spruce, a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, two-story house with a three-car garage.

Armando Coral and his wife, Merideth Rossetti-Coral, moved from Massachusetts with their 17-month old daughter to be closer to Rossetti-Coral's mother. They sold their home in Auburn, Mass., and flew to Tampa. From the airport, they began driving north looking for houses in their price range.

"I like that this is all residential. It feels safe," Rossetti-Coral said recently, busying herself repainting her dining room.

They couldn't see their neighbors from their last house, and they wanted to duplicate that sense of privacy, said Coral, 43, a real estate agent. Similarly priced homes in Pasco were built on smaller lots and bunched too tightly together.

But they quickly discovered that, like Senica, they would have to drive an hour for the shops they wanted, and that local jobs paid far less than in Massachusetts, where Rossetti-Coral, 34, had been a teacher. They described their former house as rural, but still only 15 minutes from two large malls, and a half-hour from Boston.

The couple moved in Halloween weekend. By Thanksgiving, Rossetti-Coral had already outfitted the kitchen with antiqued nickel fixtures and replaced the ceiling fan in the living room.

The building of the Suncoast Parkway paved the way for younger, more affluent residents like the Corals.

In his 1956 bestseller The Organization Man , William Whyte predicted that suburbia would become "the most important single market in the country." Suburbanites would set the trend for "dungarees, vodka martinis, outdoor barbecues, functional furniture," Whyte predicted.

A stroll through Target confirms his predictions: Mossimo stonewashed jeans for $27.99, a stainless steel and red leather cocktail set for $13.99, a Coleman Road Trip Sport Grill, $149.99.

The new population represents a market with the potential to change the face of Spring Hill and the county, attracting new and different businesses, said Schraut, the local developer. Forerunners of that trend include the recent expansion of Target on U.S. 19 and the addition of a Lowe's in Brooksville. Schraut predicts that higher-end commercial development will soon begin moving to the county.

Constructing a heritage

Sterling Hill shares its name with a custom bookbinder in Waterbury, Vt., an active adult community in Exeter, N.H., and a New Jersey mine known as the "Fluorescent Capital of the World" for the many bright minerals found there. Closer to home, "Sterling" is John Toborg's mother's maiden name, which he swears had nothing to do with the name of the Spring Hill subdivision.

Toborg is the landscape architect for Devco Development, the Tampa firm responsible for Sterling Hill. He gave Sterling Hill the limited sense of place it has: its name, its trees, its logo.

"Sterling was clean, clear, and I already had a color palette floating around in my head as far as the logo and the letterhead and the signage, which was charcoal gray and stone, and the color sterling silver goes along with that," Toborg said. The hilly landscape gave him the rest of the name.

The Indiana native surrounds himself with atlases, maps and encyclopedias, trolling for street names and monickers for Sterling Hill's gated villages: Haverhill, Brackenwood, Brightstone Place, Edgemere, Amersham Isles, Arbor Glades, Covey Run, Glen Burne.

For the landscape, Toborg picked native plants that will thrive in the sandy soil, like Bahai sod and sand pines. He planted Shumard and live oaks, Drake elms, sweet gums and Leyland cypress.

He predicts that some of his trees will be uprooted by the new owners, who will try to make the place their own by planting trees and sod native to Northern states.

Apart from Toborg's efforts, heritage at Sterling Hill must be built from scratch. Instead of all the things that lend a place its genius - folk tales, celebrations, monuments, art, landmarks - one of the builders describes Sterling Hill as a "large-scale planned community designed for a multitude of buyer profiles."

For the time being, until the Corals get some more neighbors, they focus on the interior of the house. Rossetti-Coral outfitted a modish hot-pink, black and white bathroom for her daughter and decorated the playroom. Like Senica, they watch through the windows for new neighbors.

They already know Joe and Georgia Fatigato, a semiretired couple from Illinois who moved in up the street and quickly replanted their front yard with small palm trees. From there, Joe Fatigato, 63, points out "For Sale" signs in front of completed homes.

"They call it spec buying," Fatigato said. Investors, betting on swiftly rising prices, have a house built just to turn around and sell it.

Despite the construction around them, the Fatigatos hosted their family for Thanksgiving, and the Corals likewise spent the holiday in their new home. By Christmas, two families had moved in.

"We were thinking to have a small party after New Year's Eve, to invite the neighbors," Armando Coral said. "The neighbors can meet each other and talk. Somebody has to start it."

-- Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352 754-6127.

[Last modified January 8, 2006, 09:14:05]

Builder amasses Lecanto land

A developer has bought large parcels in the Central Ridge area. His attorney says plans are still being finalized, but other signs in the area are promising "exciting new development."

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published January 8, 2006

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LECANTO - A developer involved with large residential projects across the Tampa Bay area recently paid $5.6-million for property in the county's Central Ridge area.

According to official purchase records, CC Investments I LLC bought three parcels at the southeast corner of County Road 491 and County Road 486 for $1.51-million in early November.

A few days later, Lecanto Residential Partners LLC paid $4.1-million for 80 acres just a few blocks away, on the west side of CR 491 north of Fennessy Lane.

The registered agent for both companies is W. Parkinson Myers of Lutz, according to corporate filings.

Myers has been involved with several proposed large residential projects in the Tampa Bay area, including the Sherman Hills and Emerson Oaks developments in Hernando County.

Myers could not be reached for comment. But Inverness land use attorney Clark Stillwell, who represents Myers, said the developer is still working out the details surrounding both Lecanto sites.

Stillwell said Myers wants to put a retail store on the corner property that would be "consistent with a major intersection." He said the store would not be a convenience store.

He said Myers is developing several alternate site plans for the 80-acre property, which Myers' company bought from Horace V. Allen Jr. The site is currently zoned for commercial toward the front of the property and low-density residential toward the rear of the property, he said.

The developer is considering a mixed-use housing development for the property, Stillwell said. He added that the county has also indicated the need for another assisted living facility in that area.

Planners have tried to encourage development in the Central Ridge area of the county.

Myers' 80-acre property is adjacent to 213 acres slated for the 810-home Allen Plantation development.

To buy the three parcels that make up the less than 10-acre corner property, Myers' company paid $695,000 to Gulf to Lakes Associates Ltd., a company owned by Black Diamond developer Stan Olsen, and $815,000 to Circle Investments Ltd., a Crescent City company.

The parcels are across the street from another vacant commercial site, where several signs promise an "Exciting New Development," including a shopping center with a large anchor store.

Several red and white signs posted on Myers' corner property say "For Sale/Lease or Build to Suit" and include the phone number for Myers' office.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

Quail's dwindling population has state in quandary

Saving the population would mean getting the land back to the way it was when they were plentiful.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published January 8, 2006

For most of the 20th century, the bird Florida hunters pursued most avidly was the Northern bobwhite quail. They killed more than 1-million a year in the 1970s.

But in the past 20 years Florida's quail population has crashed.

Experts believe the number of Florida quail has dropped by more than two-thirds, though they have taken no census. The number of Florida quail hunters has sharply declined, too.

Now, alarmed state officials are scrambling to stop the decline. They are mindful that this may be their only chance to save Florida's quail population - and to revive hunting, which brought the state $13-million from license fees last year.

"If we don't do something now it's going to be gone with the wind," said state wildlife commissioner Richard Corbett, a Tampa mall developer who frequently hunts quail on his Panhandle plantation.

Yet wildlife officials face a tricky problem: how to save a species so its biggest fans can still shoot at it.

So they are not pursuing one obvious approach: listing quail as a protected species, like such previously hunted species as panthers, manatees and bears.

When some ornithologists proposed just that, they ran into opposition from owners of large Panhandle plantations that cultivate quail for hunting.

"They were scared it would interfere with the hunting of their healthy populations," said Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation, a pro-hunting environmental group. The plantation owners "feared they would have a bunch of (animal rights activists) filing lawsuits against them."

When the state failed to act on the Florida Ornithological Society petition, the ornithologists withdrew it. That was fine with state wildlife officials - even though they say the quail might meet the requirements for such protection.

"Some of the listing criteria would qualify the bobwhite," said Tommy Hines, who is in charge of small-game animal programs for the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "But we don't want it listed, and the plantation owners who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on quail wouldn't want them listed."

Ticking off the people who most want to help the quail, Hines explained, "would hurt more than it would help."

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Every fall in Florida, quail hunters all across the state pull on their boots, load their shotguns and turn their dogs loose in the woods. The hunters wade through thick briars, trailing the dogs sniffing out the small, round birds.

A dog freezes, its tail stiff, its nose pointing toward the thicket where the quail are hiding. The hunters kick at the brush, flushing a dozen birds into the air, and blast away. The dogs fetch the wounded and the dead.

"When a covey of quail flush at your feet, it's the biggest rush you can imagine," said Nigel Miller of Punta Gorda, a quail hunter for 25 years.

Although hunters talk about the tradition of quail hunting as if it were as old as the country itself, experts say that in colonial times quail were sparse in the South. Then settlers came along and carved the primordial forest into a patchwork of farms and woods. Their alterations created ideal quail habitat, causing the population to boom.

By the 1920s quail hunting was so popular that Florida ecologist Herbert L. Stoddard pioneered the study of managing land to produce more quail. In 1931 he published the definitive book, The Bobwhite Quail: Its Habits, Preservation, and Increase. Stoddard, co-founder of Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahassee, defined quail management as "creating a surplus to be harvested by the gun."

Quail-hunting season runs from November until March, and state regulations say hunters can kill a dozen birds a day. In the 1960s, quail hunters killed more than 2.5-million birds a year, state officials say.

Quail reproduce rapidly, nesting two or three times a season and laying up to 15 eggs each time, so no one fretted about killing so many. Now experts say that over the past 20 years, Florida's quail population was dropping by about 3 percent to 5 percent a year.

"Contrary to what we thought we knew, you can overharvest them fairly easily," said Hines of the wildlife commission.

By last year, Hines said, the number of quail shot by hunters was fewer than 250,000, a tenth what they killed annually in the 1960s. And some of those weren't even wild.

"I don't know of hardly anybody who kills wild birds anymore," said Florida Wildlife Federation vice president Preston Robertson. He said hunters frequently use coveys of pen-raised birds that are turned loose in the woods to be tracked down and shot.

To start reviving the quail population, Hines said, the state may have to require hunters to shoot fewer than the daily dozen now allowed, and perhaps tinker with the regulations in other ways.

But state wildlife officials primarily blame the quail's decline on the same thing that caused the population boom: human alteration of the landscape. Solving the problem, they say, will require persuading landowners to change it back.

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At 75, Kate Ireland remembers how Florida looked back when the quail were abundant. There were plenty of farms and forests where hunters could turn the dogs loose. Fires ignited by lightning regularly burned the woods, leaving lots of native grasses for the quail to eat and build nests in.

But over time, Florida's wild places were turned into subdivisions and strip shopping centers.

"As people moved into quail territory, problems arose," said Ireland, owner of Foshalee Plantation near Tallahassee and chairwoman of the board overseeing the Tall Timbers Research Station.

In the remaining forests, wildfire was regarded as bad, so the authorities suppressed it. The forests became choked with tall undergrowth unsuitable for quail habitat.

"If we can't burn, then the whole state of Florida is not going to be able to have quail," Ireland said.

Some forests and farms were turned into orange groves. And ranchers who didn't sell their land to developers began replacing native grasses with exotic bahia grass, which quail can't tolerate.

Meanwhile, timber companies converted native longleaf pine forests into slash pine farms that turn a quicker profit. They planted the trees so close together that, even on sunny days, the forest floor was dark as night and bare of native grasses.

Reviving the quail population, experts say, will require reversing those trends. More animals than just the quail will benefit from regular burning in the woods, thinning out slash pine plantations and bringing back native grasses. Aiding the quail could also aid red-cockaded woodpeckers and the Florida scrub jays, both of which are protected species.

In October, state officials and Tall Timbers sponsored a seminar in Arcadia to show landowners how to attract quail to their property.

The following month, they held a similar session at Tall Timbers for the agencies that control 6-million acres of public land in Florida, such as the Division of Forestry. They say perhaps 1.5-million acres could be converted into quail habitat.

The state has budgeted $100,000 for the quail initiative, Corbett said, and will soon hire someone to work at Tall Timbers spearheading the drive to remake the Florida landscape, revive the quail population and bring back quail hunting.

"If we do nothing," Corbett said, "then in the next 15 or 20 years it will be gone."

Times staff researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 8, 2006, 00:43:05]