Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Opposition to the proposed Halls River Retreat gets stronger as the opinions of a Wall Street tycoon who owns nearby property are relayed.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 1, 2002
INVERNESS -- The opponents of the proposed Halls River Retreat condominium project have gained an important ally in the fight: Wall Street tycoon Lewis Ranieri, who owns a vacation home on the Homosassa River.
Over the past week Ranieri has placed calls, through an intermediary, to county commissioners expressing his opposition to the proposed four-story, 54-unit time share complex at the juncture of the Halls River and Halls River Road.
The project comes before commissioners Feb. 12 for a vote.
"The Homosassa River is in trouble enough, and we haven't stopped the bleeding on the condition of the river," said Pro-Line Boats vice president Johnny Walker, who conveyed Ranieri's views in separate phone calls to four of the five commissioners.
"(Ranieri) feels a project like this is going to have a very negative effect on the quality of the Homosassa River," Walker said. "He was also concerned about it and whether it fit with the image of the Homosassa River and the neighborhood. He feels it doesn't."
Although Ranieri, the former vice chairman of Salomon Brothers brokerage firm, prefers to remain out of the local limelight, he has substantial stakes in Citrus County.
He owns the controlling shares of American Marine Holdings, the parent company of Homosassa-based Pro-Line, which is the fifth-largest employer in the county.
County records also show he owns more than $2.5-million in local properties, including a cluster of properties with two homes less than a mile from the proposed condominium project on Halls River Road.
"He's here every chance he gets. He loves fishing here and he loves coming to Florida to get away from New York," where Ranieri primarily resides, Walker said. "He really feels this is his home, and he has an affection for the Homosassa River and Citrus County in general."
The businessman also has a track record of supporting environmental causes. Ranieri has sat on the board of directors for Environmental Defense, an advocacy group, since 1987. When the Save Our Waters Committee launched its efforts in Citrus County in 1997, Ranieri and his wife were the first contributors, each donating $500.
Ranieri has supported the mission of the Save the Homosassa River Alliance since its inception three years ago and plans to contribute to the group's legal fund to fight the condominium project, Walker said.
Commissioners acknowledged receiving Ranieri's message, but said they told Walker they could not discuss the issue with him.
Because the upcoming hearing on the project is a quasijudicial proceeding, individual commissioners should not be privy to information that is not general knowledge, County Attorney Robert Battista said. All evidence should be entered into the record at the public hearing, he said.
Commissioners may hear a person's opinion outside the public hearing, he said, because an opinion is not evidence. Discussing opinions about the case is not forbidden, Battista said, "but the better practice on (the commissioners') part is to wait until they've heard everything at the public hearing before they say anything."
On those grounds, Commissioner Vicki Phillips said she chose not to take Walker's call. The other four commissioners did.
"I couldn't discuss it with him, but I said I can listen to you and I hear you," said Commissioner Roger Batchelor, who had indicated support of the project at previous hearings. "As far as I'm concerned, that's just one of a bunch that's opposed to it."
"I listened to (Walker), but I did not discuss it with him," said commission Chairman Jim Fowler, who had also indicated support of the project at previous hearings.
"He said that Lew was against the project in Homosassa, and I said okay," said Commissioner Josh Wooten, who has previously indicated support of a scaled-back version of the project. "I don't even know the man."
"I just made sure Mr. Walker reiterated back to (Ranieri) that I had already been on record at the (Oct. 9) public workshop and the (Nov. 13) public hearing opposing the project," Commissioner Gary Bartell said. "While I'll keep an open mind when it comes before the Board of County Commissioners again (Feb. 12), I said I would take his information into consideration as I do all my constituents."
Ranieri did his homework before asking Walker to convey his opinion to the commissioners. Jim Bitter, one of the founders of the Save the Homosassa River Alliance, said he returned a call to Ranieri last week to provide more information on the project.
"He felt it was the wrong thing for the Homosassa River," Bitter said. "Just too big, too much."
The two opponents make for strange bedfellows. About a year and a half ago, Bitter accused Ranieri of "fleecing the taxpayers" when Pro-Line Boats applied for a $250,000 job creation grant from the county.
With the quality of the Homosassa River at stake with the proposed condo project, however, the two men are on the same page.
Over the past few months, the river alliance has received about $5,000 in contributions from dozens of people to pay for the legal costs of fighting the condo project, Bitter said.
Ranieri's support -- financial and otherwise -- will help boost those efforts, but other project foes need to keep up the fight, too, Bitter said.
"(Ranieri) will help us fill in the blank spaces, but it's still a local effort and it has to be a local effort," Bitter said.