An inspection shows that trees that were to be saved were not at the site of townhouses at the former Rutland Estate.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published September 17, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - The city ordered work to stop Tuesday on the upscale townhouse project at the former Rutland Estate after inspectors determined the developer had destroyed trees that should have been saved.
The inspection followed complaints from nearby residents who had accused developer D.R. Horton, which is building 54 townhomes at 5200 Fourth St. S, a site that overlooks Little Bayou, of removing old oak trees and protective mangroves.
"Trees have been removed that were scheduled on the plan to be saved," said Julie Weston, director of development services for the city.
"We have directed the people doing the work to stop work. And what we will do is determine the number of the trees that were removed that were to have been preserved and then we will require compensation for that in the form of additional trees to be planted on the site.
"And we'll have to look at the site plan to determine exactly the number and the species and the size of the trees that were removed. We will be looking at that in the next couple of days."
Richard Ladd, project manager in charge of land acquisitions in the Tampa area for D.R. Horton, said he was unaware of the problem.
"They've taken nearly every tree off the property and these were a lot of big oaks," said Paul Scherer, who has lived for 17 years in nearby Bayou Bonita.
"The others are mangroves down in the water and they have been removed. We called the city and the city indicated to us that they had some type of a permit. . . . It's like a bomb went off. There is nothing there."
"I don't know of any mangroves that have been removed," Ladd said early Tuesday.
"I didn't know that there were any mangroves there except in the wetlands. . . . Basically, the trees on the development plan are the only ones that have been removed. Some are oaks."
Scherer said it was his wife who noticed that the mangroves had been cleared. She had been taking photographs of the birds that have returned to the area in the past year, since the habitat restoration project at Little Bayou Park, 55th Avenue and Second Street S.
Now, though, Scherer and other neighbors said they are concerned that the Rutland project will destroy it all.
The development on 9.5 acres of what used to be unspoiled land is a rebirth of a project that was begun by another builder four years ago and then abandoned in 1999. Construction on the $380,000 to $460,000 homes had been expected to begin in two weeks.
