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RICHARD DANIELSONGrey Oaks' developer said he always planned homes in the shadow of a protected nest. It's just a matter of approval.
EAST LAKE - They love their eagles in Grey Oaks.
From the front gate in, signs announce that the neighborhood is built around a preserve for an American bald eagles' nest in a huge pine tree. In the nest is a family of five - two adults and three young birds. The offspring hatched this winter, and they're all flying.
Now Grey Oaks homeowners are questioning plans to develop eight more homes in the subdivision, which is just south of the Pinellas-Pasco county line. The developer says he loves the birds as much as anyone, already has spent a lot of money to protect the nest and doesn't intend to do anything to harm it now.
"Believe me: I want to protect the eagles ... probably more than anybody," said developer Roy E. Shaffer Jr., 61, of Clearwater.
Everyone agrees that the eagles are a part of the neighborhood's identity. Signs warn trespassers to stay out of the sanctuary and refer to federal species-protection laws. A 6-foot fence with imposing black metal bars keeps everyone hundreds of feet away from the nest. One concerned resident says people bought here, in large part, because of the natural setting.
"Having the eagles' nest there is unique and special," said Bill Gordon, 49, a certified financial planner who bought in Grey Oaks two years ago.
The effect is enhanced by Grey Oaks Boulevard, which extends for about 1,000 feet through undeveloped property, with the eagle sanctuary on one side and vacant land on the other, before reaching the first homes in the neighborhood.
The eagles have "almost come to symbolize the community," Gordon said. "The absence of construction along that roadway, along with the eagles' nest, makes for one of the most beautiful entryways in Pinellas County."
Shaffer has submitted a site plan to Pinellas County proposing to develop eight more lots along the north side of Grey Oaks Boulevard, across from the sanctuary's fence.
In response, worried homeowners in Grey Oaks are peppering county, state and federal officials with questions about the proposal and its potential effect on the eagle family.
Shaffer says they shouldn't worry and is scheduled to meet with homeowners next week.
"Those eagles are like our kids," Shaffer said. He said he worked with officials when the subdivision was originally developed, spent more than necessary on the fence around the sanctuary and worked with the builder to limit construction to about 10 homes a year in an effort to minimize activity that could disturb the eagles.
"I would be offended, really offended, if somebody said I didn't care," he said.
Shaffer said plans for the neighborhood have always included those lots along Grey Oaks Boulevard, and the water and sewer lines are already in place.
To the county, Shaffer has submitted a proposed site plan for all eight lots.
To the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he has asked for - and received - an okay to develop only two lots, the ones on the eastern and westernmost ends of the row. The other six lots lie, to varying degrees, within a 400-foot protective zone established in every direction around the nest.
Shaffer said he has had consultants conduct a study of the eagles in preparation for asking Fish and Wildlife for permission to develop the other six lots. He hopes to sell all eight to home builder Marc Rutenberg.
County officials say that, as it stands, a builder could get only tree and building permits for only the two lots on the eastern and western ends of the row of eight.
Development of the other six lots would have to be okayed by federal wildlife officials before Pinellas County would issue permits for them, said Al Navaroli, the county's development review services manager.
"Before we'll let him onto any other lots (than the outermost two), we'll need an update from fish and wildlife authorities authorizing (the) movement," Navaroli said.
Meanwhile, members of the Clearwater Audubon Society, which covers all of North Pinellas, have been monitoring the discussions.
Joan Brigham, who runs an eagle-monitoring program for the society, said the nest is the oldest on record in this end of the county. The fact that the parent eagles have hatched three young there last winter is a good sign.
"To have three young in a nest is most unusual," she said. "It indicates that that pair of eagles is finding plenty of food and everything they need to survive."
In the 1960s, the bald eagle had been all but wiped out, with only 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. Now that number is greater than 5,000, and federal officials began talking during the Clinton administration about possibly taking the eagles off the federal government's list of threatened species.
With the bald eagle on the rebound, it's increasingly common to see the birds thrive even though they're living close to people. In North Pinellas, there was just one other nest this year with three young eagles in it, and that's in a cellular telephone tower near Ruth Eckerd Hall, Brigham said.
If both county and federal officials approve Shaffer's plan for Grey Oaks, work could take place only from mid May through late September, when the eagles aren't nesting.
Typically, development is restricted in a zone established at least 750 feet from the nest, but in Grey Oaks a smaller 400-foot radius was established in a development management plan written in 1996. If that plan had not been written, many of the homes in Grey Oaks now could not have been built.
"It'd be a big chunk of houses that wouldn't be there today if they had stuck to the by-the-book rule," said Doug Harbert, an environmental specialist with the county's development review services division.