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Letter to the editor

Burglar in sticky situation Home-appearance rule

By Times Staff Writers
Published December 28, 2007

Maybe Billy Joe Jordan will find better fortune in 2008.

The 45-year-old Riverview man jumped feet-first down a rooftop ventilation shaft at the Lucky Buffet one June night and got stuck.

Workers at the restaurant on U.S. 301 S and Boyette Road in Riverview heard his cries when they showed up the next morning.

They looked up into the shaft and saw the bottom side of a white sneaker.

They called 911 - then passed a glass of water up to the dehydrated burglar.

Hillsborough County firefighters hoisted him out and lowered him down from the roof, where sheriff's deputies slapped handcuffs on him.

Jordan, whose arrest record dates to 1981 on charges ranging from battery to larceny, pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to probation and community service.

Saundra Amrhein, Times staff writer

Plant City leaders took an unusual path in the spring to protect the town's image. They responded to cookie-cutter developments by considering an "antimonotony" ordinance. The idea was to keep every house or apartment building from looking just like the one next to it.

The dimensions covered a lot of ground: varying lot sizes, an option on floor plans, exteriors that would go beyond stucco, and front porches on at least 25 percent of new homes.

After city staffers drafted an ordinance, the city requested bids for a consultant to study the best ways to enforce it.

What, for example, would happen to communities that are all but developed, apart from one or two lots?

In the end, it didn't matter. Only one consultant put in a bid - for $94,250, more than the city could afford.

With that, the antimonotony rules were tabled indefinitely.

Andrew Meacham, Times staff writer

[Last modified December 27, 2007, 23:41:05]