Neighborhood report
Gandy/Sun Bay South: Residents wary of notorious landowner
Don Connolly won't tell neighbors his plans for a parcel of land he bought near Clark and Pearl avenues.
By RON MATUS, Times Staff Writer
Published December 12, 2003
A couple of months ago, Bonnie French talked to a guy named Don Connolly about an acre of wooded land being cleared behind her Pearl Avenue home.
He told her he was planning condominiums, she said. He sounded nice.
Then, a few weeks ago, French found out she had talked to the Don Connolly - the Valrico businessman who has gained notoriety for buying slivers of land at tax auctions and selling them to neighbors.
"I freaked," French said Monday.
Connolly, who cleared the land without proper approval, hasn't told city officials what he plans to do with his parcel, or with another small chunk of land he is under contract to buy. Both properties are just north of where Clark Avenue dead-ends into Pearl Avenue, not far from Home Depot.
Neighbors hear townhouses or apartments are in the works, but given Connolly's reputation, some fear less conventional plans.
Last year, Connolly paid $1,000 for lake-bottom property in north Pinellas County, then put a pink fence on the shoreline. He told 15 waterfront homeowners they could buy their view back - for $450,000.
"We don't want a pink fence," French said.
"It's like, oh my God, we don't need this guy," said Mabel Machado, another Pearl Avenue resident.
If Connolly has concrete plans, he wouldn't discuss them with the Times.
"I don't want to discuss what I'm going to do with it," he said last week.
So far, Connolly has not applied for any city permits, officials say.
Connolly Family Land Trust, one of several entities Connolly uses to buy land, bought the parcel at a tax deed auction in March 2002, county property records show. It's zoned for single-family homes.
The parcel to the west - seven-tenths of an acre - is owned by Smitcom Inc. of Tampa and is zoned for homes and businesses. It's under contract to be sold to Connolly Family Land Trust, said Smitcom representative Bill Smith.
Connolly hasn't revealed development plans to him, either, Smith said.
Another nearby landowner, Bruce Wetherell, said he looked at the Connolly parcel a few years ago, as he was developing plans for a golf range on 12 acres to the north and east.
His conclusion: Too wet.
"It's not developable," said Wetherell, who lives in Pinellas County. "I felt sorry for the people who owned it."
Connolly's plans have already hit a minor snag.
In November, the county Environmental Protection Commission issued a warning to Connolly Family Land Trust after neighbors complained about debris piles. Inspectors found vegetation had been cleared from wetlands without prior approval from the county, which is required.
Once the problem was brought to Connolly's attention, the debris was either hauled away or moved to uplands, to the satisfaction of county officials.
Last week, Connolly asked the county to survey the property and mark the exact location of wetlands.
- Ron Matus can be reached at 226-3405 or matus@sptimes.com
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