Land in legal tangle may become park

The 4.5 acres off Gulf-to-Bay - once the site of a proposed office building - could be preserved if the city, county and state pitch in.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 1, 2001

CLEARWATER -- In an effort to end a three-year battle over an oak-shaded tract, the city and Pinellas County agreed this week to seek a Florida Community Trust grant to buy the land and preserve it as a park.

And the county on Tuesday pledged up to $250,000 toward the purchase of the 4.5 acres in dispute, just west of McMullen-Booth Road on the south side of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

The land was the site of a proposed office building, but the Clearwater City Commission rejected that idea this spring after intense opposition from the nearby Historic Bayview neighborhood. Residents there galvanized a coalition of environmentalists, American-Indian activists and about 1,500 others who signed petitions to preserve the land.

Although a lawsuit now is pending to overturn the City Commission's decision and allow the 84-foot-tall office building to rise, the proposed land acquisition could end all the strife.

If the state approves, the city would use state grant dollars for 75 percent of the estimated purchase price of $2-million to $2.2-million for the land.

In addition to the county's $250,000, the city would pick up $250,000 to $300,000 of the cost, although the funding would have to be debated again by the City Commission.

"I'm glad to see this finally come around," said Pinellas County Commissioner Bob Stewart.

The tree-dotted land near the banks of Tampa Bay was the site of a mobile home park. Now the land acts as a buffer between busy Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and Historic Bayview.

The purchase price for the land is higher than it was when the Connolly trust had planned to sell it to a local developer to build the office building. The land is valued at about $577,000 for tax purposes by Pinellas County. It was originally going to be sold to the builder for the office complex for about $1.6-million, according to several city officials.

Clearwater commissioners, who discussed the issue Monday, have mixed views on creating a park at the location, although they are willing to go forward with applying for the state grant.

"I really think that's a unique opportunity for the city to get a piece of property that we've been struggling with for a long time," said Commissioner Bill Jonson.

Jonson said he would like to see a nature trail and some kind of interpretative center to focus on the history and environment of the site on Tampa Bay, which was home to American-Indians and some of Pinellas' earliest pioneer families.

Commissioners Ed Hart, Hoyt Hamilton and Mayor Brian Aungst were more leery of spending city dollars on the site. Hamilton said he thinks it is a bad location for a park.

Aungst suggested that area activists and residents who sought to have the land preserved might need to help the city maintain the land if it is bought. He challenged activists who wanted the land saved to offer donations to help the city with its purchase.

Hart said the city should look for other grant dollars to cover the city's potential costs.

Hart himself is a target in the lawsuit being waged over the land because attorneys for the Connolly Trust have alleged he had improper ex parte communication with people outside of commission meetings during which the land's zoning was debated.

When the commission debates zoning, it is considered a judicial proceeding and commissioners are supposed to base their decisions on a set of criteria in the city's code and evidence presented at the hearing, according to Ed Armstrong, one of the attorneys whose firm has represented the Connolly Trust.

At the meeting during which the commission refused to rezone the land for an office complex, Hart commented that he had received information that state officials would be willing to help the city acquire grant funding to buy the land. The Connolly Trust's lawsuit alleges that commissioners then inappropriately refused to rezone the land from a residential zoning to an office zoning, in order to keep the price low so it could be bought for a park.

Another Connolly attorney, Darryl Richards of Tampa, said that he is considering whether Hart may be personally liable for his actions in the matter.

Jack Alvord, president of the Historic Bayview Association, said Tuesday that he is relieved that the city and county are pursuing grant dollars to buy the land. Alvord said his neighborhood has been fighting for two decades to try to stop commercial intrusion from wiping out the historic enclave.

"This is the last stand of 104 live oak trees like this," Alvord said.

If the office building were allowed, residents feared that their side of Gulf-to-Bay would become more heavily developed, Alvord said. He noted that a developer recently bought another piece of land at the neighborhood's edge and knocked down a historic home there.

- Staff writer Lisa Greene contributed to this report.

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