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Shed pushes limits of the law, and the owner
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
© St. Petersburg Times, BROOKSVILLE -- Hernando County's new shed ordinance faces its first test, and it's a whopper. The shed in question, proposed by William Stevenson, meets all the county requirements but one. At 5,000 square feet, it's 121/2 times larger than the maximum allowed under the new ordinance. Stevenson argues the size, bigger than most homes in the county, should not matter. His property on E Fort Dade Avenue west of Brooksville, though zoned residential, is 31/2 acres, and the building will sit in a corner far removed from the roadways and obscured by trees from neighbors, who have not objected. Even more relevant, Stevenson argues, he filed his permit application a month before the ordinance took effect. The county Development Department delayed issuance until after that date, he said, then rejected the building which otherwise would have been legal. "I went from no problem to it's an illegal building in Hernando County," said Stevenson, 45, who has paid $183 to file for a variance and borrowed more than $20,000 against his life insurance for materials that now lie uninstalled on his land. "I really don't know what I'm going to do other than go crazy, like I've been doing. . . . I'm ready to go to the extreme." Commission Chairman Chris Kingsley, who opposed the ordinance as unnecessary, said he couldn't blame Stevenson. Kingsley said that when the commission was discussing the shed ordinance, he thought it was going to include an exemption for people with large acreage. "It's his property. He's made sure he's got the land. I don't see what's wrong," Kingsley said. The situation represents the worst fears that opponents raised during debate over the rule, Kingsley said. "He sounds like he has a perfectly logical complaint." But if Stevenson did not have a final permit at the time the ordinance went into effect, he cannot claim any special privilege, said Commissioner Mary Aiken, who has called oversized sheds a blight on society. Stevenson is welcome to seek a variance from the commission, as he has done, Aiken said. But he should not expect her support. "Oh, that's ugly," she said on hearing the 50-by-100-foot dimensions of the metal building. "I'm an artist. That's ugly. That's a freight car. No. Never anything that looks like a freight car on the landscape. Talk about unaesthetic." County Development Director Grant Tolbert has urged Stevenson to consider asking the commission to rezone the property to commercial, noting much of the surrounding area along State Road 50 is designated for commercial use. The shed ordinance applies only to land zoned residential. "The property looks commercial. It just isn't," Tolbert said. He acknowledged that Stevenson would have met all the county rules for his building before the ordinance took effect. But Stevenson did not have all the plans in place in time, Tolbert said. Tolbert also questioned how the building could be considered an accessory to residential use, as sheds are supposed to be, because Stevenson rents the small house on the property to someone else and actually lives around the corner. Stevenson, who wants to use the structure to store several vehicles, including a motor home and two boats, blamed county employees for stretching out his application approval period until the new rules came into play. "I do what they tell me to do, and then they laugh at me," he said. "The worst thing is, I've already spent my money. . . . I don't know what else to do but fight. They're the ones that pushed me into a corner. - Staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6115.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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