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The city now says a radio station can leave its tower where it is, 5 feet onto city property, while a bridge is built.
By JENNIFER FARRELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 14, 2002
CLEARWATER -- In April, city officials noticed a problem with WTAN-AM's new radio tower: It overlapped onto city property and stood in the way of the sprawling Memorial Causeway Bridge project.
Amid finger-pointing and talk of a lawsuit, the city demanded WTAN tear down the 183-foot tower immediately.
Now it appears the bridge and tower can coexist.
"Basically, we're not going to ask them to move the tower," City Manager Bill Horne said Thursday.
Horne said the city likely will back off its call to remove the tower, given early indications that construction equipment can work around it.
City Engineer Mike Quillen said officials are waiting on word from the bridge builder whether the tower, which the city says encroaches on its property by 5 feet, will cause added expense or delays to the $69-million project. If so, he said, the city will seek compensation from WTAN.
"If it costs us any extra money on the bridge contract, we're going to be looking to recoup that," he said. "Even if we don't have to move the tower, there could be minor cost and time delays."
On Thursday, WTAN-AM's Clearwater attorney, Michael Gaines, said his client has done its part by moving a fence around the tower to make room for bridge construction. The radio station shouldn't have to make further concessions, he said.
"I don't necessarily concede that the tower is in the wrong spot or that if it's in the wrong spot, that's because of folks from WTAN," he said. "If and when the city says that they want something else, that may be when we start drawing lines in the sand."
Crews are to begin work in the area Monday.
Yet to be ironed out, said Quillen and Horne, is how to adjust property lines.
Last year, the city spent more than a half-million dollars to acquire a sliver of land from WTAN so the new bridge could be built.
The price was twice an appraiser's estimate of the land's value, and it included a payment to help the "Tan-Talk" station move to another downtown studio and build a new radio tower.
Unfortunately, city officials say, the radio station built its new radio tower so that it encroaches 5 feet onto the city's property -- the same land that cost Clearwater so much to buy.
If the tower stays put, Horne said, some kind of settlement would have to be fashioned to compensate the city for losing property that the radio station effectively seized.
But radio station officials have blamed the tower's location on the city, saying city staff marked where it should be built.
City officials deny that.
Hopefully, Gaines said, a solution is within reach.
"We're certainly amenable to working with them to try to resolve something that doesn't cause everybody too much heartburn," he said. "I would hope that what's been done is enough and that the contractor can work around whatever encroachment there may be."
-- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com.