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Time running out for Tampa Palms eyesore

By BILL COATS
Published March 30, 2007

TAMPA - A judge refused Thursday to stop the city of Tampa from demolishing a huge eyesore that has sat for five years in an elegant Tampa Palms neighborhood.

But the unfinished 7,554-square-foot house, condemned since 2003, will get a reprieve of at least a week. Circuit Judge Charlene Honeywell said she will withhold her signed decision for five days to give property owner Scott Burdge time to gather photos and other records for his ongoing lawsuit against the city.

Wednesday night, the house triggered the first question in an annual meeting Mayor Pam Iorio holds in New Tampa.

"If the judge rules and does not grant the injunction, we are prepared to bulldoze the house immediately," Iorio said. But Gary Glassman, the assistant city attorney on the case, said Thursday that the city would wait for a signed order.

"As soon as Glassman gives me the okay, you're going to hear a loud boom in New Tampa," said Curtis Lane, the city's director of code enforcement.

Honeywell questioned why the city would hurry, since Burdge's lawsuit could go to trial as early as this summer. If the city is proved wrong, Burdge can recover damages. But the judge noted that the city's code enforcement board, plus several judges, all have ruled against Burdge's appeals.

Burdge, a former developer in Northdale and Lutz, bought his lot at the end of Witham Court more than a decade ago, and plowed more than $500,000 into the house, he testified in a deposition in October. But in 2001, with the house one-third finished, Burdge's general contractor pulled out. Burdge tried to supervise the subcontractors himself.

But in 2003, with construction in its fourth year, complaints by neighbors mounted, and the city stopped all work there. Burdge contends that has led to some of the deterioration.

Today, the columned, Mediterranean-style house has broad porches and a three-car garage. But plywood covers many windows and doors, shingles only partly cover the roof, and weeds grow where the driveway should be.

Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 30, 2007, 00:55:40]