Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Removal of trees creates a rift

Wellington residents miss the view and complain of noise from work at the site, which is now a sand pit. The builder says it had the right to excavate sand and will relandscape.

By DAN DeWITT
Published November 13, 2005

SPRING HILL - Fred Aveni pointed through a narrow fringe of pines and across a 200-yard-wide sand pit.

"You can see my lanai right over there," said Aveni, 66, who lives in the Wellington at Seven Hills.

"Didn't used to be able to."

Until two months ago, Aveni and his neighbors said, the pit was a gentle swale, covered by rows of planted pines 15 to 20 feet tall. The trees offered good views, privacy, a place to take evening walks and occasional glimpses of foxes and wild turkey.

The patch of trees, labeled as a drainage retention area and "common area" on plans filed with the county, was attractive enough that these homeowners paid premiums of $15,000 to $18,000 for lots on the two streets bordering it, Farragut and Fairfield courts.

"They sure wouldn't be able to charge that much now," said Aveni, who moved to the Wellington in June from northern Virginia.

Because of the company's apparent disregard for nature and the rights of homeowners, Aveni and his neighbors said, prospective buyers should be wary when dealing with Ryland Homes of California, the country's seventh-largest home builder.

The company, however, said it always planned to excavate sand from the retention area and was granted the right to do so under deeds each buyer signed.

Government agencies, called in to referee the dispute, came down somewhere in between. The Southwest Florida Water Management District said Ryland may face a fine for altering a drainage retention area without a permit. But a Hernando County code enforcement supervisor and landscape inspector said the company has not violated county ordinances by removing the trees.

"We haven't done anything wrong," said Joe Fontana, vice president of Ryland's Tampa district.

Fontana said the company typically digs sand from retention areas to use as fill for nearby homes. Usually the company's workers excavate the dirt while the surrounding houses are under construction - not after completion, as is the case in Aveni's neighborhood.

"It truly is a timing issue," Fontana said.

The bulldozer and front-end loader that operated continually for most of the past two months stopped work Wednesday, though Fontana said he did not know if they were done for good. But when the digging is finished, he said, workers will cover the sand with sod and plant trees and shrubs among the remaining fringe of pines, which is two or three rows wide.

"Once it's all completed - sodded and landscaped - the (homeowners) will still be able to do everything they have done before," Fontana said.

But Gary Beaman, who lives on Farragut, said no landscaping will come close to replacing the loss of 1,500 trees - his estimate of the number removed.

He also said the deed language Fontana referred to actually forbids such drastic reshaping of common areas. Beaman's copy of his deed states that Ryland can change the boundaries of such areas as long as the company "does not substantially, materially and adversely affect the function and use of the common area or the character of the subdivision."

That is exactly what has happened, Beaman said.

"Where it was a gentle slope from one end to the other, now it's like a cliff," he said.

Along with more than a dozen homeowners who gathered outside his house when he was interviewed last week, Beaman complained of the constant noise, vibration and dust clouds the work caused.

Swiftmud also is unhappy with the work, or at least that Ryland changed the shape of a retention area without a permit from the agency.

"Be advised that this matter is being referred to the district's legal department for resolution, which may include a monetary penalty," the water management district said in a Sept. 22 letter to Ryland.

Last week, Swiftmud had not yet determined whether or how much to fine the company, spokesman Michael Molligan said. One factor that makes a fine more likely, he said, is that Ryland continued work even after Swiftmud told the company the work was not permitted.

"I do believe that some of these activities occurred after they were notified of the problem," Molligan said.

The work has been allowed to resume, he said, because the company has applied for a permit to alter the retention area.

The same day Swiftmud wrote its letter to Ryland, Fontana wrote one to homeowners in which he apologized "for the lack of upfront communication and the confusion."

But the homeowners said the letter did little to appease them because most of it was devoted to asserting Ryland's rights to excavate the sand.

It also included a sentence that seemed to confirm one of their main grievances - that Ryland's sales force is not to be believed.

Addressing claims that salespeople had told buyers the pine plantation would stay as it was, Fontana wrote:

"To further protect our home buyers, Ryland includes in its sales agreement a warning against placing any reliance on any representations that are not specifically included in the sales agreement document."

Dan DeWitt can be reached at 352 754-6116 or dewitt@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 13, 2005, 03:00:43]