Competition from newer subdivisions sparks a drive to bring the west side up to par.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published June 27, 2003
BLOOMINGDALE - West of Bell Shoals Road, some residents lovingly maintain their front yards with well-trimmed sod, fat shrubs and flowers. But they are surrounded by homes - some more than 20 years old - where lawns are brown or overgrown.
On streets like Sandy Creek Drive, some residents garage their cars. Others leave broken-down clunkers, boats and motor homes in driveways.
That's life in Bloomingdale West.
On the other side of Bell Shoals Road is Bloomingdale East, where new homes rise, and where the largest, most impressive ones sell for nearly half a million dollars.
The lush yards of Bloomingdale East - clustered under names like Fox Run - could be tapped for a spread in Southern Living.
Those are the two extremes of Bloomingdale.
They illustrate why some Bloomingdale High students scrunch their noses in distaste at the phrase "Bloomingdale West."
The same students associate Bloomingdale East with affluence, never mind that little is so clear cut, or that the the Estates section of Bloomingdale West rivals its eastern counterparts.
Community leaders, worried that eyesores concentrated in Bloomingdale West will taint the appeal of Bloomingdale overall, are moving to provide a facelift for the aging area.
"I think there's kind of a natural maturing process with communities, but that doesn't mean it has to be a process of decline," said Ted Grable, president of the Bloomingdale Homeowners Association, an umbrella group for all of Bloomingdale.
"A neglected home is hardest for the person next door, but it really affects the communitywide perception," Grable said. "So we have to stay on top of that."
Leaders are attacking the issue on several fronts:
- The association holds neighborhood cleanups and encourages residents to report unkempt properties that violate deed restrictions and county codes.
- The Bloomingdale special taxing district, which maintains the common areas of Bloomingdale, recently raised annual taxes from $80 to $100 per home. The increase will pay for improvements to major entryways and ongoing maintenance of perimeter walls, sprinklers and landscaping.
- At an association meeting July 21 with law enforcement officials, residents will get a chance to air concerns about crime in Bloomingdale, the west in particular.
- Association leaders may establish a Paint Your Heart Out program to improve the curbside appeal of needy homes.
Longtime Bloomingdale West resident Billy Hightower, a board member, even suggested at a recent meeting that the addresses of unsightly properties be printed in the monthly newsletter Bloomingdale Gazette as a "list of shame."
An extreme measure?
Neighborhood leaders say vigilance is necessary to uphold Bloomingdale's reputation as a desirable place in which to settle in southern Hillsborough, where competing communities spring up like wildflowers.
"We're at the point where we're old enough to have to do some of the things the older neighborhoods in Tampa are doing," said Thom Snelling, president of the special taxing district and a resident of the Estates in Bloomingdale West.
"Because, don't kid yourself, we have competition from newer subdivisions like FishHawk Ranch. We have to keep Bloomingdale West and the rest looking nice."
When Ted Grable moved to a 3-year-old home west of Bell Shoals Road in 1985, there were about 500 homes in all of Bloomingdale, most in Bloomingdale West.
The community was a hidden jewel, tucked south of Brandon.
Today, about a quarter-century after Bloomingdale was established, it has more than 4,700 homes, making it one of the county's largest communities.
Bloomingdale offers top-rated schools, a new YMCA, plenty of park and recreation space, and lush tree canopies that come only with age.
Bloomingdale West accounts for only about 25 percent of the community. Most homes are east of Bell Shoals Road, stretching almost to Lithia-Pinecrest Road.
With so many homes built over such a long time, a hodgepodge of deed restrictions - some 40 sets of them - govern home maintenance in Bloomingdale West.
Sections of Bloomingdale East have much stricter requirements for maintaining homes.
The rules in several areas, such as Fox Run, are enforced by a smaller homeowners association in which membership is mandatory. So the lawns are pristine, the paint looks fresh even on homes built in the mid 1980s, and most cars park in the garage, not on the street.
Bloomingdale West's deed restrictions were written two decades ago, before developers became adept at writing rules with "real teeth," Grable said.
Complicating matters, the oldest parts of Bloomingdale West have no mandatory homeowners associations, which have the legal status to enforce deed restrictions.
So Grable and the other eight members of the Bloomingdale Homeowners Association rely on residents to call and complain about neighbors who let their grass grow knee-high or park motor homes in the street.
The association sends a warning letter, "and it's probably 80 percent compliance after they get it," Grable said.
But, in truth, the voluntary membership group has no power. It can't even force all residents to be part of the association. Every year, the group sends out a letter asking residents to join by sending in $20. So far this year, close to 70 percent of residents have sent in checks, more than ever, association board member Cheryl Kehrmeyer said.
"We try to use the bully pulpit to get people to participate," said Grable, who moved to Bloomingdale East in 2001 after 16 years in Bloomingdale West.
Sometimes the county steps in, but typically only when a violation becomes a threat to public safety, he said.
"In Fox Run, if you don't cut your grass, they send someone out to cut it, and then they send you the bill," Kehrmeyer said.
"In Bloomingdale West, that doesn't happen. The grass grows 2 feet high, and nothing happens."
On April 26, residents of Bloomingdale West filled three county trash bins with unwanted furniture and other items long stored in yards and garages.
It was the neighborhood association's first PRIDE cleanup day, established after residents griped about unsightly properties. Most of the complaints came from Bloomingdale West, so April's cleanup targeted several hundred homes there.
"Bloomingdale West, you know, things were just getting kind of crazy over there," said Kehrmeyer, the PRIDE organizer.
"So we decided to, little by little, see if we could make a difference to make Bloomingdale shine again."
The second PRIDE cleanup is scheduled for Aug. 16 and will focus on more than 950 homes, including those in Bloomingdale West that weren't included in April's cleanup.
After that, cleanups will be held regularly throughout all of Bloomingdale, perhaps two to three times a year.
"I think people see we're doing things," Kehrmeyer said. "If we can get everybody to feel good about their community, that's the first step. Then it's, "Gosh, my grass needs to be cut.' And "Maybe I should go meet my neighbor.' "
