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Sierra: Resident's letter off base

By DAN DEWITT
Published December 21, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - Shirley Robinson wrote to the Hernando Times three weeks ago after seeing several letters to the editor from Spring Hill residents favoring the Hickory Hill development.

"I felt like somebody who actually lives over here and in a rural environment needed to express some opinions," said Robinson, who lives in Spring Lake near the 2,800-acre ranch where a Tampa development company, Sierra Properties LLC, plans to build 1,750 houses and three golf courses.

She expected Sierra to respond to her letter, which ran Dec. 3. She did not expect the response to be signed by Sierra's lawyer, John White. She also was surprised that it arrived by certified mail, meaning she had to sign a slip proving she had received it.

White's letter, dated Dec. 6, said Robinson made "several disparaging remarks without supportable facts. ...In the future, we urge you to take care to make only truthful statements when writing or speaking about our projects."

The letter was a veiled threat of a lawsuit intended to shut her up, said Robinson, 72, who lives on Old Trilby Road.

"I interpreted it as intimidating," she said.

It was not meant to be, said Sebring Sierra, the company's vice president of operations. The company always responds to letter writers, he said, and often by certified mail.

White's letter was accompanied by a second, five-page letter from Sebring Sierra about the issues she raised, he said. White wrote what Sierra called a "cover letter" because the lawyer had mentioned at a meeting that he thought Robinson's letter was especially inaccurate.

"It was more a way of correcting very false items about the project," Sierra said. Earlier in the year, the Hernando County Commission voted 3-2 to back the comprehensive plan change Sierra needs to build the project; the commission will decide whether to give the amendment final approval in April.

In Sierra's response, which has been posted on the company's Web site, he lists what he considers Robinson's misstatements.

Among them, he said, is her assertion that the county will not see a tax surplus - when property tax revenue outstrips the amount of money required to service the development - until the project is completed. According to a financial consultant the company hired, the surplus will show "very early in the development," Sierra wrote.

Robinson said the project will cause groundwater contamination. Not according to a groundwater engineer hired by the company, Sierra responded.

He also took exception to Hickory Hill being compared to Southern Hills Plantation, which has seen fewer homes built than expected, Robinson wrote, "so there is no need for another development of this kind."

"Hickory Hill will target custom home builders," Sierra stated in his response. "The builders at Southern Hills are more medium-to-large high quality builders."

Robinson said almost all the issues Sebring Sierra brought up are subject to interpretation. For example, hydrologists at the Southwest Florida Water Management District have stated that water seeps quickly through the soil at Hickory Hill, increasing the likelihood of contamination.

In his letter, White says Sierra employees "encourage and carefully listen to public feedback and opinions regarding Hickory Hill."

But by sending its letter, Robinson said, the company has shown this is not true.

What he really means is "that as long as you agree with Sierra, he values your opinion," she said.

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

[Last modified December 20, 2006, 21:42:23]