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Haunted house to face music

The Code Enforcement Board will likely summon the Largo shop owners soon.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published March 2, 2007

LARGO - Count Dracula might try resolving Castel Bantuit's permitting issues with a quick bite to a city code inspector's neck.

But Largo officials say the mortals who own a casket-filled monument to B-movie horror at 1751 Missouri Ave. have a more conventional appointment with the city.

Helene Urbin and Bert Beigel, who are trying to turn the former auto parts store into a year-round haunted house, probably will be summoned to a Code Enforcement Board hearing tentatively scheduled for late March.

About two weeks ago, the city issued them a notice of violation because of the unconventional and eye-catching signs they've painted on the front of the building - not to mention the several inoperable, unregistered vehicles, including two hearses and an old Jeep, scattered around the property.

Urbin and Beigel also were issued a stop-work order "for work being done without a permit," said Ken Andrews, Largo's assistant building official.

The couple had five days to respond.

But all the city got was silence.

Now they could face fines of $250 to $500 a day.

"It's up to the Code Enforcement Board," Andrews said.

Urbin would not comment Tuesday.

After initially refusing to let anyone from the city enter the building, Urbin and Beigel let an inspector inside for a cursory look, Andrews said. But officials must return to perform a more thorough examination.

On that day, however, officials did discover something odd.

"She admitted she's living there," Andrews said. That's a problem, he said, because "it's not zoned residential."

Public records show Urbin and Beigel bought the property and the vacant lot adjacent to it last year for $1.05-million.

Beigel, 80, a former real estate broker, has Alzheimer's disease. Urbin, 58, has been Beigel's girlfriend since his wife died several years ago.

They are in the process of refurbishing their 15,000-square-foot, two-story Largo building to make it as creepy-looking as possible.

Sitting in the parking lot are a pair of 12-foot-tall gargoyles. The outside and inside of the facility are covered with spooky murals featuring griffins and ghosts.

If their plan succeeds, on the first floor will be a haunted house and gift store selling T-shirts, candy and 7-foot-long wooden coffins. On the second floor will be a dinner theater area complete with a stage where magicians will perform and horror movies will be shown - maybe even one starring the most famous vampire of all.

Eileen Schulte can be reached at 727 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 1, 2007, 23:44:55]