Tarpon Woods lake to go to highest bidder
Some neighbors, still remembering another lake and large pink fence, intend to be at the auction to question the buyer's motives.
By NORA KOCH
Published April 17, 2005
EAST LAKE - Nestled inside a tiny golf course neighborhood, downslope from the 16th tee, lies a lake.
The murky waters are full of fish, Tarpon Woods neighbors say, making the place a haven for catch-and-release anglers. A few years ago alligator hunters came and got rid of a few 7-footers, but some smaller gators still roam the lake with turtles. At dusk the cypress trees on two tiny islands are like a hotel for snowy egrets, anhingas, cormorants and blue herons.
It's a nice lake, but nothing special. Except that it is scheduled to be sold to the highest bidder at a lakeside auction at noon on April 27.
"Why would you want to buy a lake?" chuckled Jack Watson, 80, a seasonal resident from Illinois whose winter home backs up to the lake.
"Whoever's going to buy it, they're just going to buy water," said a befuddled John Skirta, 74, who has lived on the opposite side of the lake for 21 years. "You can't do anything with it."
When auction signs went up this week around the perimeter of the 41/2-acre lake, neighbors raised their eyebrows, wondering if something fishy was going on in their neighborhood.
Again.
At first glance, this lake-for-auction deal smelled like the 2002 land scandal that made national headlines when investor Don Connolly paid $848 for a small lake near the lake now in question. He then put up a pink fence with sparkles that blocked neighbors' view of the lake, and offered to sell the land for about $30,000 per home.
News accounts soon revealed that the move was part of a larger investment strategy by Connolly, which included buying small slivers of land and telling neighbors he would do something they didn't want with the property unless they bought him out. That prompted legislation aimed at curbing the practice and sparked procedural reforms among county tax collectors and property appraisers. Connolly died in January.
Tarpon Woods neighbors started to think the auction of this lake was fishy when they read auctioneer Neal VanDeRee's Web site, which until Friday afternoon said "parts of the lake can be filled to make buildable prime homesites."
VanDeRee said Friday the statement was an error, that it would be impossible to build a home on the wetlands, a preservation area under Pinellas County's land plan. County and state officials agreed, noting that getting permits to fill a lake and build on wetlands would be extremely difficult.
Even with the change, the auction Web site, www.vanderee.com still touts the lake in florid prose: Prime property located just east of U.S. 19 in Pinellas County, with two islands, both covered in cypress trees, in a nice upscale neighborhood, Located just one mile from Lake Tarpon, Minutes away from the gulf, near Tarpon airstrip. Lake is surrounded by $1,000,000 homes, Tarpon Woods Golf & Country Club, Tarpon Woods Blvd, Brian Road North and Pattie Place.
Actually, neighbors say, homes in the area go for more like $300,000 to $400,000.
The value of the lake itself is anybody's guess, though the Pinellas County Property Appraiser assessed it at $10,400 in 2003. Currently, it is the property of Angela Madden of Oakwood, Ill.
Madden and her ex-husband, James Heath, mistakenly acquired the lake in July 1990 at a county tax deed sale. They paid $604 in back taxes on a piece of property they assumed was a house, but because of an error in the parcel number, they ended up as new lake owners.
In 2003, Madden got the lake in the couple's divorce. Now she wants to unload it.
"I don't plan on putting up a pink fence or anything like that," said Madden, 45. "I just want to move on. I'm not sure that I'm going to get a lot of money out of it."
But who would want to buy it and what would they do with it?
So far, VanDeRee said he has received a dozen queries by phone. The Venice-based auctioneer has been in the business since 1970, but this is his first foray into lake auctioning.
An Austrian woman flew across the Atlantic Ocean to scout out the lake, VanDeRee said, and a wealthy man from north Sarasota also is interested.
Tarpon Woods Country Club and Golf Course owner Mark McClimans looked into the auction this week.
"I wanted to see that it is actually real," McClimans said.
He already owns the lake on the opposite side of the 16th fairway, and might as well consider buying its twin, he said.
"If the price is right," McClimans said, "I can always use another lake."
For neighbors, who were initially confused and concerned when the signs went up, taking up a collection to buy the lake isn't on the table, said Deena Ewing, who has lived on the lake for 8 years. They don't want to take on the liability. Plus, she said, whoever buys it can't do much to ruin their views.
Still, neighbors plan to show up for the auction on April 27.
"We all want to look the purchaser in the eye," Ewing said, "and say, "How stupid are you to purchase a lake you can't do anything with?"'
Nora Koch can be reached at 727 771-4304 or nkoch@sptimes.com