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Oldsmar quietly opens borders

After failing four times to annex West Oldsmar through referendum, the city is doing it with voluntary additions.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published May 25, 2006

[Times photo: Scott Keeler]

While there is no visible line, Amber Ezra, left, and Christina Mize are on opposite sides of a political border though they are neighbors in rental properties on Meriden Avenue in West Oldsmar. Ezra's home is in unincorporated Pinellas County. Mize's home, along with nine others, was recently annexed into the city of Oldsmar.

OLDSMAR - Standing outside their homes on Meriden Avenue, next-door neighbors Christina Mize and Amber Ezra talked one afternoon this week about getting city recreation cards.

For Mize, 26, an annual rec card would cost $3, or $10 for a family pass.

For Ezra, 25, an individual card would cost $80.

The difference?

Mize's home is one of 10 West Oldsmar properties recently annexed into Oldsmar's city limits. Ezra still lives in unincorporated Pinellas County.

Most of West Oldsmar's 769 residents are in the county like Ezra, but that's changing.

Two other West Oldsmar properties are in the process of being brought into the city through voluntary annexation. All the properties are on Meriden and Phoenix avenues, which border the city limits.

The city has turned to encouraging voluntary annexation after failing four times in 40 years to annex West Oldsmar through referendum. A dozen property owners, most who rent out their West Oldsmar properties, said they wanted in.

"We are chipping away at it," said City Council member Jim Ronecker. "We're not going to get it all, but we are getting chunks of it."

The latest referendum rejection was last year. Since then, the city has sent letters to property owners eligible for annexation, those bordering the city limits. The letters outlined the benefits of being a part of the city.

For property owners, the city says the benefits include a 25 percent reduction in water and sewer rates and lower property taxes.

For the city, annexation of West Oldsmar properties gives Oldsmar some say in development and potentially big tax revenues in the future.

In 2003, West Oldsmar's total taxable real estate value was $25.6-million, according to an annexation feasibility study conducted by the Pinellas County Planning Council.

"There's only so many ways our city can grow," Ronecker said. "West Oldsmar is not a very good-looking part of town. It's kind of rundown-looking in some places, and the city can definitely help."

One of the city's goals is to annex enough lots to reach the site of the Anchor North Bay mobile home park, said Mayor Jerry Beverland. The land, which sits on Old Tampa Bay, was sold in December 2004 to developers who intend to build luxury condos and townhomes.

Beverland said he wants those new homeowners to call themselves Oldsmar residents. He also wants the property to be annexed into the city before being developed.

"We're aggressively going after this," Beverland said, pointing to the mobile home park on a map.

The site was sold for $3.35-million to Alex Sullivan, son of the co-owner of Outback Steakhouse, and Sullivan's business partner, Adam Schoenbaum.

"This is the first I've heard of it," Sullivan said. "It's not something I've considered."

On that note, Sullivan said anything is a possibility.

Voluntary annexation, where a property owner asks to be annexed into a city, is the way most communities annex, said Michael Crawford, planning manager for the Pinellas Planning Council.

Seminole and Largo are the only two cities annexing through referendum, Crawford said.

Annexation through referendum is more efficient and results in cleaner-looking boundaries than voluntary annexation, Crawford said.

Still, he predicts Oldsmar may annex all of West Oldsmar.

"In the long term - we're talking 20, 30, maybe 40 years - the majority of that area or all that area will be annexed," Crawford said.

The process takes four to six months, said Jerry Paradise, director of planning and redevelopment.

Once a property owner files an application requesting annexation, the request has to go through the city's technical review committee, the planning board, two readings before the City Council and several county entities before being approved.

Yvonne de Leon, who owns and rents out 3624 Meriden Ave., said she is happy with her decision to annex into the city.

Dissatisfied with Pinellas County's trash pickup, de Leon said she's seen a big difference since switching to the city's services in December 2005.

"Knocking very hard on wood, we haven't had a single problem with garbage pickup with the city," she said.

But annexing into the city means abiding by their code enforcement regulations.

"It's a rat's nest," Beverland said of West Oldsmar. "It's terrible and we would set our code enforcement on it."

That's exactly why some West Oldsmar residents, like Eleanor Davis, oppose being annexed into the city.

Living in unincorporated Pinellas gives Davis and her neighbors, "more freedom to be able to do what we want to do," she said.

West Oldsmar residents aren't restricted to the number and type of vehicles they have parked outside their homes, Davis said. Annexing to Oldsmar wouldn't offer her anything.

"We just like it the way we are," Davis said. "The county suits us fine."

[Last modified May 25, 2006, 00:55:15]