Oakstead builder plans talk with foes

Opponents of the project accuse the developer of ignoring endangered animals on the 847-acre property.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 12, 2000

LAND O'LAKES -- After eight months of watching his proposed Oakstead development linger in limbo, Tampa developer Don Buck has a proposition for his opponents in the group Citizens for Sanity: Let's talk.

On Monday, the same day Citizens for Sanity refiled a lawsuit to thwart Oakstead, Buck's attorney, David Smolker, proposed settling their differences out of court.

Clay Colson, the Land O'Lakes man who formed Citizens for Sanity to defeat the proposed 1,200-home subdivision, agreed to sit across the table from his foe. A meeting date has yet to be set.

"I will always sit down with anyone to talk," Colson said Tuesday. "It doesn't mean we'll reach a consensus."

Colson is so certain Oakstead would ruin his rural neighborhood west of U.S. 41 that he sued Pasco County last year to overturn Oakstead's rezoning.

One of the main points of contention is wildlife. Citizens for Sanity accuses Buck's company, Devco Development Corp., of ignoring endangered animals on the 847-acre Oakstead property.

Although the land is mostly cattle pasture, Colson insists the property teems with turkey, bobcats, gopher tortoises, red cockaded woodpeckers and other animals.

Devco, which hired a biologist to search the land for animals, denies it overlooked endangered species.

Tom Reese, the St. Petersburg attorney representing Colson and his colleagues, said Smolker suggested ending the impasse by creating a wildlife habitat corridor at Oakstead.

Wildlife corridors are generally created by linking undevelopable wetlands by strips of developable upland. The result is a nature preserve that animals can roam freely.

Because Oakstead is still in the conceptual stage, developers are open to redrawing their plans to accommodate the corridor, Reese said.

"There's turkey, there's deer, there's coyote. You name it, it's out there," Reese said.

Neither Smolker nor Buck could be reached for comment.

Yet despite the proposal to negotiate, the lawsuit still stands.

Colson is asking the court to force Pasco County to adopt stricter wildlife regulations. Until that happens, Colson wants Circuit Judge Stanley Mills to freeze not just Oakstead but all development in Pasco.

On March 24, Mills dismissed a first version of the lawsuit, partly on the grounds that the activists didn't have a "clear legal right" to block development in Pasco.

Mills gave Colson 20 days to refile the lawsuit, a loophole Colson seized on Monday by filing a new complaint in court.

County Attorney Robert Sumner said he believes the second version of the lawsuit is as doomed as the first.

"I don't see it as a real problem," Sumner said. "It's an irritant."

At least partly because of the lawsuit, the county has rushed through a wildlife protection ordinance that could be ready for approval as early as next week.

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