As the developer of the Rutland Estate tries to compensate for destroying trees, it faces another accusation.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published September 21, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - A longtime member of the local Sierra Club contends that a developer bulldozed mangroves to make way for an upscale townhouse project and boat slips at the former Rutland Estate.
The county's environmental management department is investigating.
"The difficulty often is, we are going to have to establish what was there prior to removal," Will Davis, environmental management director, said Friday.
"We will be searching for evidence, witnesses who knew what the shoreline was like before removal."
Late Friday, as county investigators reported in, Davis said, "It does not appear that there was significant mangrove removal from that site, but we are continuing our investigation." He noted that penalties can be as much as $10,000 a day or $500 per mangrove.
A project manager said he was unaware of any mangroves being taken out.
It was the second time in days that the developer, D.R. Horton, had run into tree trouble.
Early last week, city inspectors determined that the developer had destroyed trees that should have been saved. Work was stopped while the city surveyed the damage.
D.R. Horton is building 54 townhomes at 5200 Fourth St. S, a project that includes 20 boat slips.
On Friday, Julie Weston, director of development services for the city, said at least two live oaks that should have been preserved had been destroyed.
She said she told a representative of D.R. Horton that at the very least, "an after-the-fact tree removal permit" and tree replacement would be required.
"He agreed readily," Ms. Weston said in an e-mail to the Neighborhood Times.
"Wednesday he made application for a site work permit which would allow construction of the utilities and roads on site. This is being reviewed by my staff and the engineering department."
Ms. Weston said that the permit likely will be issued early this week along with the tree removal permit. That is when penalties will be determined.
Richard Ladd, project manager in charge of land acquisitions in the Tampa area for D.R. Horton, said the developer will accept the city's ruling.
"I'm not going to argue the point and I have expressed that to the authorities and I can't unequivocally say they weren't there," he said of the oaks he has said had been removed by a previous developer.
Ladd said the company will save other trees.
"There's two banyan trees that were scheduled to be taken out that we are not going to take out," he said. "We redesigned the walk to save all that are there."
The oaks are "living death anyway," he said, noting that they are prone to disease, but banyan trees "are worth paying attention to."
By Friday morning, tall cabbage palms had appeared near a newly installed chain link fence near Fourth Street S. The palms had been on the property and been earmarked for removal, Ladd said.
"We just transplanted them. ... We could have just hauled them off. We had someone look at them who said they were healthy and worthwhile saving."
For now, he said the company will plant 168 trees, dozens more than required by the city under the current site plan.
"In 10 years, it will look just like Sunrise does," he said, referring to a neighborhood street.
It was a complaint from neighborhood residents, many of whom had fought years ago to preserve the unspoiled property on Little Bayou, that brought the tree removal matter to the city's attention.
Jane Wolfe, though, said she is comfortable that D.R. Horton will take care of the issue.
"There are some neighbors who are real excited about them coming to the neighborhood," she said.
The county learned about the mangroves from Sierra Club member Beth Connor. Davis of the county's environmental management department said permits are required for the removal and trimming of mangroves.
"When I walked through those gates yesterday, I felt that I was on a moonscape," Connor said Friday.
"I was so incensed that those bulldozers were still moving after what I thought was a stop order had been issued. ... I am upset with this, because I think that they were removing evidence, and how can we get a complete picture and how can an investigator get a full picture when the dump trucks are flying out of there?"
Randall Luttenberg, conservation chairman for the Suncoast Sierra Club Group, which includes Pinellas County, said the organization worked with the county this year to get improved mangrove ordinances passed.
"Mangroves are the cornerstone of the whole ecosystem in the Tampa Bay area," Luttenberg said.
Ladd said his company wants to be a good neighbor to residents.
"We tested the waters and kept them informed of who we were and that they weren't going to have another disaster like they had in 1999," he said.
Robert Swain, the original developer of the almost 10 acres of property, filed for bankruptcy protection in 1999, and the project stalled.
South St. Pete Properties Inc. of Tampa acquired the land in 2000. D.R. Horton, a national builder based in Texas, purchased the property this summer. Prices for its townhomes are expected to range from $380,000 to $460,000.
