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Letter to the editor

Resident blocks city's plan

"We were blindsided, " says Safety Harbor City Manager Billy Beckett.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published June 29, 2007

SAFETY HARBOR - If you're keeping score, it's William Turkali 2, Safety Harbor 0.

Why does Turkali keep winning?

Here's one possible reason: He keeps showing up at Pinellas County Commission meetings.

City officials have not.

With a simple show of hands on Tuesday, Pinellas commissioners refused to allow Safety Harbor's updated community redevelopment plan to move forward.

The vote was 5-1, with Commissioner Bob Stewart dissenting. Commissioner John Morroni was absent.

"I was passed out I was so thrilled, " Turkali said. "Next week I'll be 71 and this is a great birthday present."

Back in Safety Harbor, the news not welcomed around City Hall.

"For more than three years we have worked to update this plan, which is now 15 years old, " said City Commissioner Nadine Nickeson. "So much went into it. So much public education. (More than 500) parcels are contained in the plan. To have it rejected because of one is ... I'm perplexed."

When the issue came before county commissioners Tuesday, Turkali was seated in a front row, shaking his head from side to side trying to send a nonverbal "vote no" message to commissioners.

It may have worked.

He also had something else in his favor: no one from the city was there to defend the redevelopment plan.

Worse yet, no one at City Hall even was aware county commissioners were scheduled to act on it.

"Quite frankly, we were blindsided, " said City Manager Billy Beckett.

He and other city officials were blindsided last month, too. At that county meeting, Turkali argued Safety Harbor's plan, which was created to maintain the city's charm, violated his property rights. It failed then in a 3-3 vote.

As for the city failing to make its case Tuesday, Community Development director Matt McLachlan offered this explanation to Beckett via e-mail:

"The item on yesterday's agenda was to set the public hearing for July 24 (directing staff to proceed with advertising). It was a procedural matter with no public comment. I talked to the county staff this morning and they've never seen anything like this happen in the past. It's usually a routine item. I'm anxious to get a copy of the meeting tape to hear the discussion."

Turkali bought his waterfront home on Bayshore Boulevard in 1983. In 1992, the city asked him if he would like the property to become part of Safety Harbor's community redevelopment plan. He agreed.

Officials rezoned his property to retail/office/service, which increased its value to about $800, 000 by Turkali's estimation.

But last year, city commissioners decided to change the area again to residential, this time limiting height to 25 feet, the size of a single-story house.

Turkali was enraged. He theorized the changes to the redevelopment plan came about because politically motivated commissioners tried to align themselves with small town charm.

He pestered commissioners at city meetings, demanding to know why his land was targeted.

He never felt he got a good answer.

Apparently neither did county commissioners.

The county's planning director, Brian Smith, said the city did send a letter to the county attempting to justify its amended redevelopment plan, but commissioners passed on it because they felt they were not given sufficient reasons why Turkali's property was handled in the way it was.

After Tuesday's victory, Turkali went to City Hall on Wednesday morning to talk to Beckett about the county's decision.

"He was p-----, " Turkali said. "He threw me out of his office."

Beckett denies that.

"I told him the conversation was over, which it was, and he left, " Beckett said in an e-mail to the Times.

Beckett said he isn't sure what the city will do now.

"We'll have to sit down and talk about it as a staff, " he said.

Turkali does have at least one city ally.

City Commissioner Joseph Ayoub, who was not yet elected when the city commission changed the redevelopment plan, said he sides with Turkali.

"Based on where the property is located (between the Harbour Pointe complex and the Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History), it doesn't make sense to have it downgraded, " he said. "It just seemed unfair."

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

[Last modified June 28, 2007, 22:24:13]