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Dispute points to pond, profits

Opponents of a planned apartment project say the county's approval ignored the site's neighbors.

By JACKIE RIPLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published November 16, 2007

CITRUS PARK 

Plans by Post Properties to build a three-story apartment complex in the heart of this rural community have never gone down well with civic leaders.

But what opponents find even more egregious is the developer's plan to fill in a quarter-acre pond on the 20-acre site.

"People's wells are going to get polluted and neighborhoods are going to flood," said Linda Gadbaw, who has lived on Basswood Avenue for nearly three decades.

"We're concerned for all the people on well and septic," said longtime resident Grant Walters. Development "is encircling Citrus Park without regard to the community itself," he said.

Post, based in Atlanta, wants to build the apartment community on 20 acres of Gunn Highway, just north of Publix and across from Sickles High School. The developer says it needs the area where the pond sits in order to have enough usable land to make the project profitable.

At issue are two questions: How important is the pond, and how far should government go to allow a developer to turn a profit?

While Post argues it shouldn't have to lose money, critics of the project ask why Citrus Park should have to suffer because Post embarked on a difficult project.

Residents led by Gadbaw say the pond, which shows up on a 1932 aerial map, was there even before Citrus Park was settled. They say it's a spring-fed body of water that the community's pioneers once used for drinking water. To destroy it, they say, will adversely affect the community.

Post, which wants to fill the pond and mitigate with a retention area elsewhere on the site, contends the original pond was man-made and little more than a watering hole for cattle.

To that, Gadbaw responds, "I guess you'll have to say that the early Citrus Park settlers were cattle."

The county's Environmental Protection Commission originally denied Post's petition to fill the pond and move it elsewhere. But when the developer claimed an economic hardship, the agency relented.

"We have an accountant who looks at the numbers and says if it's okay or not okay," said Michael Thompson, an environmental engineer for the commission.

The commission uses a formula to calculate how much someone pays for a piece of property, then measures it against what he can expect as a fair rate of return on the investment.

No one from Post would comment for this article. But, in papers filed with the commission, the company contends that because it spent millions putting the parcels together, it should be allowed to move ahead with a development plan that provides reasonable use of its property.

In those documents, Post also stated that it acquired the site from 13 owners in March and April of 2005 for $5.35-million. According to its Web site, the company's total investment for the project is expected to be about $41.4-million.

The Web site describes Post Walk at Citrus Park Village as a 296-unit resort-style garden apartment community.

According to the commission's calculations, Post paid fair market value for the property.

In its approval, the commission explained that Post is working under a threefold hardship.

First: Wetlands pose a challenge to development.

Second: TECO Energy Inc. has a transmission line easement at the rear of the property, where it will not allow development.

Third: Citrus Park is a so-called overlay district, meaning there are community design rules that govern development.

Post tried last year to get around a requirement that it build streets on a rectangular grid, for a neotraditional effect. The county's land-use staff held firm, putting Post at even more of a disadvantage.

While the commission considered Post's business issues, critics say the agency has not given enough weight to their environmental concerns.

Charles Adams, a retired engineer, says he does not believe the commission did sufficient testing before agreeing with Post that the pond was a cattle watering hole.

The commission, however, respectfully disagreed.

"We don't want to see the wetlands get whacked anymore than you do," said Anthony D'Aquila, the commission's director of environmental resources management. "But this is an isolated wetlands and not a spring at all."

Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or at 813 269-5308.

[Last modified November 15, 2007, 06:35:01]