Posted on 05/14/2002 5:05:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
EAST LAKE -- Many residents thought they owned the lake behind their $300,000 homes. They mowed up to the water line and chipped in yearly to treat the lake for algae blooms.
So it came as quite a shock Thursday when workers began erecting a 6-foot-high fence around the lake, obliterating their view.
For good measure, the workers painted a portion of the fence behind Alice Beehner's home bright pink and decorated it with sparkles.
"Isn't that atrocious?" Mrs. Beehner said Monday, pointing to the fence a few feet from her screened-in pool. "It's sickening!"
For 10 years the developer of their Tarpon Woods subdivision had let the taxes lapse on the 4-acre lake and a thin band of land around it.
A real estate speculator swooped in to purchase it for $1,000 at a delinquent tax sale in February. The speculator, 44-year-old Don Connolly of Valrico, now is offering to sell the land behind each of the homes for $30,000 per homeowner.
Residents ignored a letter from Connolly, trustee of the Lake Alice Land Trust that purchased the lake, offering to sell. Instead, someone took a couple of survey posts marking the property boundaries and threw them into the lake.
Connolly said that's when he decided to build the fence.
He started behind Beehner's meticulously landscaped property. The new fence separated her from two mature laurel oaks she planted shortly after moving into her home 17 years ago.
[Times photo: Jim Damaske] The fence behind the house of Alice Beehner, with dogs Beethoven and Bridgette, is pink with sparkles. Don Connolly says the color is to warn workers to stay away "because that person is very volatile and confronted us in the past."
"It's total extortion," Mrs. Beehner, 61, said Monday.
Connolly said he offered to sell the property to the homeowners as a courtesy.
"Is selling a piece of land extortion?" he said. "That doesn't make any sense to me."
He said he specializes in buying properties at tax sales. Records show he owns 50 properties in Pinellas County. Connolly said he owns 150 to 200 statewide.
"When people don't pay their taxes, this is what happens," he said. "I was willing to pay more than anyone else for this property. . . . The business we're in is unpleasant sometimes."
Connolly knows the consequences of failing to pay taxes.
Records show that in 1997 he was charged with failing to remit more than $100,000 worth of sales tax for an auto sales business he owned in Hillsborough County. Connolly blamed it on the company's accounting firm and said he reached a settlement with the state.
Because homeowners have rebuffed his offer, Connolly said, he now plans to develop two or three "executive" homes overlooking the lake. It might entail a dredge and fill project to move the lake a bit to the south, he said.
County officials said that would be difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish.
"He can't build on it unless he replaces the stormwater drainage," said Al Navaroli, a manager for the county's Development Review Services Department. "And pretty much all of it is stormwater drainage. . . . He's limited in what he can do."
But there's nothing to prevent Connolly from erecting the fence, Navaroli said, or painting it any color he chooses.
"I certainly see the man is trying to be obnoxious to his neighbors," Navaroli said. "But I don't see that he's violating any codes."
On Monday, the fence stretched across three of the 15 waterfront lots. He plans to extend it all the way around the lake.
"My intention is not to annoy anyone," he said.
As for painting the fence pink behind Mrs. Beehner's property, Connolly said, it was done to warn workers to stay away from that site "because that person is very volatile and confronted us in the past."
Connolly said he was shocked by the vitriol from some of the residents. The offer to sell small pieces of land to individual homeowners is off the table. Connolly said he is now negotiating with one homeowner interested in buying the entire 4.7-acre property.
He would not say how much he is asking. "I'm a reasonable man," Connolly said.
Mrs. Beehner warns the pink fence behind her property could be erected behind any number of homes in Pinellas.
"People need to be warned," she said. "This could happen in your back yard."
Connolly said he owns one other lake in Pinellas County.
But Navaroli said his office believes Connolly may own several properties that neighborhoods consider common areas. Navaroli said he warned the county property appraiser's office more than a year ago about the danger of taxing undevelopable lands, such as retention ponds, or selling those lands at tax sale.
"It's a pretty disgusting mess," said County Commissioner Susan Latvala. "We have to prevent this from happening again. That kind of property should not be for sale."
As for the Tarpon Woods lake, however, county officials said there may be nothing they can do to help the homeowners.
Some homeowners blame the developer, Lloyd Ferrentino for allowing the taxes to lapse. At the very least, some said, he should have notified the property owners so they could have tried to buy it. Ferrentino could not be reached Monday.
On Monday, Connolly's workers continued their fence-building, extending it behind the home of Peter Cieslinski. Cieslinski, 44, who was just released from active duty in the Navy a week ago, said he can't believe the county would allow someone to come in and take away his view of the alligators, turtles and wading birds.
"I look at it this way: There's the spirit of the law and the letter of the law," Cieslinski said. "The county is looking at this as the letter of the law. There's got to be a legal Latin term for "the law says this, but wait a minute, look at the extenuating circumstances.' "
Mrs. Beehner said neighbors plan to hire an attorney.
If you survive long enough, and if I noticed you before, I will figure out which disruptor you were.
Oh, I agree. Decent people and people of good temperment would never appeal to you.
However, that is not my hunch. My hunch is that few -- or no -- people would have you as a friend.
Right you are! Off I go!
I dropped a HUGE sack of money for a house last month. You'd better believe that I checked every jot and tittle of the deed and the associated documents, because that house represents a substantial portion of my net worth.
These folks either let themselves be lied to, or they knew that the lakefront wasn't theirs. Now that someone actually has the temerity to buy the property and ask them to buy it from him, and he DARES to try to make a profit! The NERVE of that man!
And what was one of the first responses on this thread? A thinly-disguised call for someone to commit arson.
This deal is eminently fair--and it seems that the owner of the parcel is willing to negotiate. But the homeowners don't want to bother with that--and many so-called conservatives here on FR seem to take the stance that property rights are sacred right up to the moment that others' property rights are personally inconvenient to them.
Notice that there's one guy in the group actually trying to cut a deal. He apparently understands the concept of "property rights."
First and foremost, CJ has just confirmed our assessment that he is a statist/socialist with this post. Thanks CJ.
And CJ, screw your "majority sense of justice" - the guy who purchased the property is wholly within his rights. The cause of action here lies against the homeowners association for not paying the taxes - damages were the $30K each homeowner will have to pay to re-acquire that which they lost due to the HA's negligence - now they are whatever it will take to buy off this guy...
Appy, sorry, you're dead wrong on this issue.
Poohbah - what the hell...this is two threads where we agree and you are making sense...will we find in the X-files season finale that you were abducted with Mulder and experimented upon? ;^)
I only read the first 100 posts...ain't reading the last 900 or so...nice to see that everyone's sense of property rights isn't situational...shheeshhh...you'd think a bunch of liberals posted here.
BTW - The only hope these people have is that they were in a Bankruptcy (the stay might affect this sale) and/or the purchaser/taxing authority did not allow them a redemption to cure the back taxes...otherwise they're screwed...
Ummm, it's his property therefore he can do as he wishes with it. What part of that don't you understand?.
---max
The court then can decide whether to condemn the property as an eyesore, or may simply decree that the lakeowner erect a less offensive fence.
Either way, the homeowners are going to lose in the short term. The lakeowner is going to lose in the long term. And the lawyers will collect their fees and drive to the bank.
BTW, the vitriol you display over hypotheticals regarding the building of decks by your neighbors betrays three of the four following behaviors symptomatic of Asperger's Disorder:
1) Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction.
(Well, we can't really see what your doing right now, and by golly, if your neighbors do, you'll sue!)
2)Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(BINGO!)
3)A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people).
(Yup.)
4)Lack of social or emotional reciprocity.
(It's like they're reading your mind.)
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