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Townhomes project faces scrutiny

A county committee will review a plan today for a site near Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park. Residents say development there would damage the environment.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published August 11, 2005

BAYONET POINT - From his second-story balcony, Steve Byle can see an expanse of pine and scrubby flatwoods, a grassy salt marsh and a crystal-blue estuary that winds out to the Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes a bald eagle perches atop a towering longleaf pine to scout the waters for a snack.

"I bought this home specifically for the view," said Byle, a small business consultant.

His Leisure Beach home overlooks the north end of the Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park, a 3,500-acre coastal preserve.

It also overlooks a 62.94-acre site where a developer wants to plant 362 townhomes.

"The state is so lucky to have put this park together," Byle said. "Why would you want to take the chance of destroying it with this stupid project over here?"

That will be his question today for the county's Development Review Committee, which will consider the plans for the Bayonet Point Townhomes. The site, owned by Mid-Peninsula Realty Investment Group of Dunedin, is pinned between the state park and the Publix shopping center at the northwest corner of U.S. 19 and State Road 52.

Developer Berton R. Thomas calls it "a beautiful project" with a 14.7-acre conservation area already deeded to the state. He said he has met all the county planners' requirements and has the right zoning in place.

In 1985, the County Commission granted multifamily zoning for the tract, allowing up to 464 units there.

Take out the conservation area, the drainage ponds and the wetlands, and the proposed 362 townhomes will cover roughly half the site, Thomas said. The units would be three stories tall, with two floors of living space atop the garage.

"This will allow 362 people to live in a secluded, wooded, spacious environment with no traffic noise, no lights, wonderful views of the water and access to Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park," Thomas said. "This is going to be an absolutely wonderful place to live in and raise your children."

In short, he said, it will give others the same view Byle enjoys.

"For anybody to say this project is overbuilding is (making a) solely self-serving and subjective statement," Thomas said.

The property is home to one bald eagle's nest, 10 active gopher tortoise burrows and scores of wildlife, including great blue herons and red-shouldered hawks, according to the developer's environmental report. The 2001 management plan for the Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park shows this site, among a handful of others, as one the state would have liked to acquire.

But Thomas said the large amount of dry land makes the site "developable land, not parkland." And he said the bald eagle would be protected: Nothing would be built within 400 feet of the eagle's nest, which sits on the western fringe of the property.

That's little comfort to Leisure Beach resident Ron Walczak, who fears the project will drive out the majestic bird.

"I watch the eagles fly over. It's something I'd never seen before until I moved to Florida," said Walczak, a Vermont native. "It's going to be gone."

That kind of talk riles Thomas, who said he has made every effort to have an environmentally friendly project. He said the project won't raze any protected trees, won't place townhomes right on the water and won't require truckloads of fill to elevate the units, as the garage would serve as the first floor.

Said Thomas: "This is as close to a textbook case of how to treat a piece of property that you'll ever find."

The county's Development Review Committee meets today at 1:30 p.m. at the historic courthouse, 37918 Meridian Ave. in Dade City.

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 00:43:15]