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.
I would too... That being said, if the county would have wanted to help these people, or have the land as a town park, they would have kept it when the original owner defaulted... I would not expect help from the county through eminent domain.
I would have thought the other property owners could have won under adverse possession... but I have doubts after reading post 41. If they had been accessing the property through permission granted by the original owner all these years... they were not assuming possession adversely at all, apparently, even if they had made improvements to the property.
If you ever type that again I will kick your ass.
;^)
With that said, there is probably more to this story than what was reported in the local newspaper. I suspect that the deeds may have contained reciprical easements regarding use of the lake even if title to the lake remained in the name of the developer. There might also be a subdivison map that provides for reciprical easements or even public use of the lake as a condition for the subdivision approval.
I actually think his risk exposure is at a minimum with this deal however. They will eventually pay, and he will turn a nice profit on the deal.
I would not sleep well at night if I was in this type of business, but it looks like a legal form of making a profit to me!
This is similar to those that purchase an expired domain name, post some porn, and then make the person who previously owned the domain name pay an excessive price to regain it. Distasteful, but legal, it is also totally avoidable if people would pay attention.
This is strange. Why someone would want the pink fence lake with the angry neighbours? He does not want to enjoy anything with the excpetion of extorted money (30K per neighbour) and some malicious satisfaction. He deserves a nasty revange for his greed and stupidity.
If a man cannot build a fence on his property because you have prevented him, you have stolen his property.
If I can see your house, I am not stealing your house. If I can see your car, I am not stealing your car. If I can see your lake, I am not stealing your lake.
You have no right to see anything. You have no rights to an unchanging view and you have no right to property value for that matter.
To use force to obtain/retain a view is immoral. You know it but your hatred of this swine obscures your thinking.
Morally, obviously. Legally, no one cares.
I think the county can intervene and is more likely to due to his moral failings. But legally, he is untouchable.
Violence? Violence?
Please revisit your post with an eye towards the possibility of a wee bit of hyperbole having been employed in it's construction.
Do you imaging that the local government is going to send cops to drag the lake owner out of his car and beat him to death, or perhaps just shoot him?
It is amazing how stupid and petty people can be. Town could help the widow to pay for wood siding and everyone would be happy!
Dude, no offense, but you are not demonstrating a broad depth of real estate knowledge here. I explained what the term 'quiet enjoyment' means.
Outside of city, township, or county zoning, or outside of homeowners association contracts he may have signed, he is not in violation of penal or civil law.
Created lakes can be owned. Natural lakes cannot.
Imagine if it were otherwise. Buy 500 acres in Florida and put a 100 acre lake in the middle. Do you now not own that lake?
Developers often dredged out swampy areas, made a lake, and took the dirt from the dredging to make lots. The developer then still owns the lake, and he sells the lots around it.
We actually have a case down here of a developer selling lake front homes and condos and then selling the lake to another developer who filled most of it in to build more condo's. Instead of overlooking a 300 acre lake, the original home owners now overlook a 50 acre pond.
Read your deeds, or better yet, hire a lawyer to read it for you!
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