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Instead of forcing 139 enclaves of county property to become part of Clearwater, the city lets property owners decide. Only 20 enclaves accept the offer.
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 4, 2000
CLEARWATER -- This city's map resembles a piece of Swiss cheese: The holes in Clearwater's jurisdiction are small pockets of county land, or enclaves, that are not under city control.
Over the past year, the city has paid consultants about $300,000 to try to annex 139 such small enclaves of county land, each less than 1 acre. But the efforts weren't fruitful, according to a report released this week. Only 20 enclaves will become part of Clearwater in the coming months.
The owners in 119 other county enclaves have rejected or declined to discuss the city's offer to annex them. These owners were not even persuaded by a special, one-time proposal for Clearwater to pay some costs to lay water and sewer lines to their homes.
"I just can't see a benefit to it," said James Davis, a retiree and one of many enclave owners who rejected the city's offer. "I see it as an added expense to me, because I'd have to start paying city taxes. And I'd have to pay something to have the water and sewer lines hooked up to my house."
Despite such negative responses, city administrators insisted Tuesday that they are not disappointed with their annexation program's results.
"I'm satisfied that we got a heck of lot of information out to property owners, so they at least knew the benefits (of annexation)," city planning director Ralph Stone said. Those benefits would result in paying slightly more in taxes and fees, he conceded, but the services would be better. Stone partially attributed the low success rate of the city's annexation program to a decision last year by the City Commission not to proceed aggressively with it.
Technically, Stone said, the city could have forcibly annexed all 139 enclaves of less than 1 acre in size within city limits -- without the property owners' permission.
The Florida Legislature gave Clearwater and other Pinellas cities the power to make such involuntary annexations in 1998, so long as they complete the annexations by June 2001. The Legislature passed the law after local cities complained that enclaves burdened their governments.
If one home on a street is not in the city, officials say, city garbage collectors must skip that house and leave it for another county garbage truck to serve. City police have to call county sheriff's deputies to answer non-emergency calls at enclaves.
Enclave residents use city parks, drive on paved city streets and use other Clearwater services -- all without paying city taxes.
But last year, Stone said, the City Commission decided not to forcefully annex anyone after some county residents protested the special state law. The issue still draws passionate comments.
"I'm a World War II veteran, and I remember when the Nazis did forceable annexation," said Jack Alvord, a resident of a county enclave on Tampa Bay, who has opposed city annexation of his neighborhood. "They forceably annexed Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and France. I think this is the kind of thing we fought against."
After hearing similar passionate comments, officials in Seminole, Pinellas Park and Largo also have declined to take advantage of the special state law. They annex only properties owned by people who want to become part of their cities.
Dunedin, however, has taken full advantage of the state law, said Dunedin City Manager John Lawrence. "Once some of the initial protests died down," Lawrence said, "the only person who appeared at any of the meetings where we were doing the annexations just said thank you very much for annexing us. It went extremely smoothly for us."
Dunedin has involuntarily annexed 75 county parcels with about 14 more such annexations in the works, said Kevin Campbell, community services director. Clearwater commissioners said they will approve Thursday the plan to annex the 20 enclaves, taking in only those people who want to become part of the city. Clearwater estimates the cost to extend sewer lines and other utilities for the 20 enclaves will be $134,000.
"For those property owners that want to come in," said Commissioner Ed Hooper, "I think this is an appropriate way to do it."