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Letter to the editor

Annexation ruling may reopen turf fight

An appeals court tosses a Pinellas County ordinance aimed at halting annexation wars.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published September 21, 2007

A state appeals court released a decision Thursday that could clear the way for the resumption of the annexation turf wars that plagued Pinellas County in the late 1990s.

The decision, which affirmed a lower court ruling, invalidated a county ordinance adopted by Pinellas County voters in 2000. The ordinance, commonly called 00-63, established so-called annexation boxes around Pinellas cities. The cities had free rein to voluntarily annex any property within those boxes without interference from other municipalities. Other boxes created annexation-free zones around some unincorporated areas.

Those boxes are now gone, giving cities free rein to do voluntary annexations anywhere they want, provided the property is contiguous to land already in the city. The decision was no surprise and city officials were measured in their comments.

"I think it was exactly what we anticipated would happen," Pinellas Park spokesman Tim Caddell said. "At this point, it doesn't change anything we're doing. We're not rushing out to do anything."

Since the lawsuit was filed, Largo has undergone a leadership change and has begun a less ambitious annexation program. Mayor Pat Gerard said she wants to avoid the turf wars of the past.

"There was quite a lot of conflict between the cities which just hasn't been there since" the ordinance went into effect, Gerard said. "Hopefully we can start doing something quickly so it doesn't descend into squabbling.

"I would like to get together with the county and those other cities and take a look at those lines again."

That sounds great, Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch said, but residents of the unincorporated areas need to be included at the table. The problems with 00-63 began because the people who live in the unincorporated Lealman area had no say in how the boxes were first drawn.

The 00-63 ordinance was created as a way to stop annexation turf wars that had sprung up between cities and between cities and the county. A couple of years after voters passed the measure, antiannexation activists from the unincorporated Lealman area appealed to the county for protection from repeated annexations by Seminole, Pinellas Park, St. Petersburg and Kenneth City. Welch led the charge and the no-annexation zone around Lealman was expanded, which contracted the annexation areas for Seminole and Pinellas Park.

Seminole and Largo sued the county and Pinellas Park joined in.

It was the principle of the thing," Gerard said in explaining why Largo sued when it was not affected by the County Commission's decision. "The fact that they moved that line meant they could move any line."

The trial court sided with the cities and, on Wednesday, so did the Second District Court of Appeal.

Pinellas County had the right to regulate annexation, but went about it the wrong way, the court said. Rather than passing an ordinance, the county should have made it a part of its charter, or constitution, and gotten voters' approval.

Ray Neri, head of the Lealman Community Association, which helped lead the fight to have the lines changed, said, "We knew this was coming. There was very little hope that 00-63 would survive the courts. I don't know if it's good or bad, to tell the truth."

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 02:39:04]