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.
You sure do whine a lot. Do you need your diaper changed or something?
I think if the owner of the lake were forced to swim in it the problem would be simplified.
Absent knowing the local laws, I agree with you, and the pictures of the fence don't show it being so high as to unreasonably shade the neighbor's lot. Yet I'd hope a Judge could condemn the lake, at a reasonable non-extortion comdemnation price price, so as to maintain the neighborhood peace.And I'd hope that property rights are worth more than "peace". So would a lot of Korean grocers in shall-we-say "economically disadvantaged neighborhoods". Taking their stores or controlling their prices could be called "maintaining the peace" by unscrupulous politicians.
I'd bet that $30,000 is the approximate difference in property values between houses with legitimate lake frontage, and those without.
-Eric
Homeowners who consider the enjoyment of their property diminished and/or their resale values reduced will doubtless take those grievances to their elected representives. As Kevin Curry previously pointed out, that may result in more burdensome legal restrictions on the use of property being enacted.
Actions have consequences.
In my entire life, I have never ONCE seen this sequence of events.
I have seen Eminent Domain condemnations for roadways and widenings thereof, and for public parks. That is it.
Why in the hell would anyone want to live within feet of a pond full of alligators anyway. LOL!Because they taste good? >:)
-Eric
492 posted on 5/14/02 9:47 AM Pacific by Dan from Michigan
They buy one acre parcels and attempt to control the County. I live in the Country and they find you!
I had two decide to borrow about 50 feet of my field for a expanded back yards. They even when so far as to establish a headge row of trees and Autumn Olives.
When I attempted to find the Property stakes they got All bent out of shape. Telling me that they were on their property. Well I found the stakes. And yes they had expanded their land a bit. They instead of suggesting that they would remove their plants, tried to argue with me about it.
I Suggested very strongly that A) they either remove their things and stay to home or b) Enjoy the long summers with a 1,000 hog lot in their back yards. The next week when I put up a wolven wire fence there was a lot of watching from the lot dwellers.
Things have since quieted down nicely.
Agree. Free Republic sounds like it has been hijacked by a bunch of communists. "The lake is there, please local government-make him take down that fence so the commune can enjoy the view again."
I think he whines because he owns a pond too and he is afraid someone will condemn it to build a strip mall.
Even in the most capitalist of all societies, there is a recognition of public good.
Or perhaps you are opposed to roadways?
Of course, I was the one who left the room smiling after that. I had known what I was doing all along. Now they have to suffer my business development for decades to come, all on their own city property (some 8 acres of it, too).Hmmm...since it's their property, they don't collect property taxes either, do they? >:)
-Eric
Precisely!
The homeowners never purchased the lake. They have been enjoying a windfall. The Speculator purchased the property for $1,000. He now enjoys a windfall. This case is nothing more than which party gets to enjoy the windfall. Since the homeowners paid nothing and never obtained title while the speculator did, the law will be on his side.
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