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Rural life is nice, until the rest of us need that land

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published May 18, 2006

If you turn west onto Union Street off busy McMullen-Booth Road in north Pinellas County, the neighborhood still has a surprisingly pastoral character, not too different from the orange groves and cattle farms that used to be there.

There's a stable and riding trails on the north side. People's "yards" can be deep, good-sized parcels with corral fences and a horse or two in the back yard. Some of the newer homes are upscale, but many are older and relatively small.

One exception to the pattern is McMullen-Booth Elementary School on the south side of the street. The neighbors fought it when it was proposed in the mid 1990s but came to terms with the Pinellas County School Board.

A decade later, the neighbors are upset again. A vacant part of the School Board's property has been selected for a large sports complex, featuring four lighted, multipurpose fields that would serve north Pinellas communities.

Location aside, it's a great idea. The project is an inspiring example of cooperation between the School Board, the county government and the cities of Clearwater and Safety Harbor. Kids from all over would benefit.

Nor is there any question the fields for soccer, lacrosse, youth football and other sports are needed. Clearwater did a study a while back and found it could build a dozen fields. County kids don't have enough places for recreation either. Suitable sites already in public hands are rare.

The neighbors don't deny any of that. But they feel more than a little snookered. They believe the sports complex will go a long way toward destroying the character of their neighborhood.

Russell Birch, the owner of a computer software company, is one of them. He had me out to the house he bought in 1996 after getting assurances from the School Board that even a middle school - the original idea for the vacant part of the land - was far in the future.

Instead, he fears early-morning bullhorns and whistles and brightly lighted games until 9:30 p.m. or later most nights, with constant traffic. His house sits close to the back of his large lot; the fields would be a stone's throw from his rear windows.

"Basically, they want to steamroll the rights of the neighborhood," Birch said. We paced off the distance from the edge of his back yard to the edge of the proposed fields. Picture the edge of your yard sitting on the goal line of a football field, and a lighted soccer field starting at the 30-yard line, and that's about right.

As we spoke, Charlie Brown, Birch's next-door neighbor, drove up. He has a decal of the cartoon character on the back of his car. He and his wife have lived there for 40 years, literally since the orange grove-and-cattle days.

He has a big picture window looking over the back yard that would get a new view.

When the neighbors dropped their opposition to the elementary school in 1995, the School Board agreed to conditions from the zoning folks. In a letter dated March 13, 1995, these rules were spelled out.

Item 4 says simply: "Play area not to be lighted."

I talked to county and city folks and they believe the no-lights rule applies only to the elementary school, not the adjoining vacant land. The rules don't say anything about soccer fields, or any other use.

The planners of the projects say modern lights are designed to light only the fields. There will be fences and buffer zones.

Anyway, the land is still being evaluated, and it's not even certain it can be used. Then the governments would have to apply for approval. That hearing would be in the late summer at the earliest.

Birch gave me a stack of letters from area residents opposing the idea. They have hired a lawyer. They say that had they known, they could have just sold out for condo development, like so many others. Instead, they thought they could hold on to something unique.

Maybe the site won't work out. Maybe the neighbors can be mollified. Or maybe the governments will decide to put it through anyway, on the logic that the needs of the many must outweigh the interests of the few. The price of living in Florida is that other people want to live here, too. These are the kinds of decisions we have to make every day.

[Last modified May 18, 2006, 06:03:09]