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Salvation Army to relocate offices
By TIM GRANT © St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000 CARROLLWOOD -- When neighbors weren't complaining about heavy equipment at the Salvation Army headquarters on Lake Ellen Lane, they griped about its employees' traffic or something else. There was always some animosity toward the charitable organization housed in this otherwise quiet neighborhood. But tensions reached an all-time high a year ago when the Salvation Army tried to buy more residential property here. "They needed to tear down homes in order to grow, and residential property would have become commercial," said Marilyn Messina, a homeowner. "It would have altered the character of our neighborhood." So it's no surprise that homeowners are not upset about the Salvation Army's announcement that it plans to move its state headquarters and sell the property it has owned for almost 70 years. The group is negotiating to buy 10 acres off Van Dyke Road east of Lake Carlton Arms Apartments on the north side of the road, said Steve Dick, a spokesman for the organization. While the move won't happen for about four years, Dick said board members have decided that they've outgrown the lakeside residential site. "The place is so overcrowded we've turned bathrooms and closets into offices," Dick said. "We've had to use every inch of space in that building to meet our need for more space. "We can't grow any larger where we are. We will design a new building that might be more growth friendly. We need a building more suitable for the growth we'll need in the next 20 to 30 years." The 11-acre plot at 3101 Lake Ellen Lane is not yet on the market. However, residents are concerned about the future of that site. "The people who are already there will have a fit unless it is used for residential," said Betsy Hapner, president of the Carrollwood Civic Association. "They don't want apartments. They didn't even want the second story the Salvation Army had asked for." In June 1999, the charity filed a rezoning petition to increase its office space on Lake Ellen Lane from 29,800 square feet to 46,600 to accommodate its growing operation. But it withdrew the petition one day after the St. Petersburg Times reported strong community opposition and a possible conflict of interest involving a Hillsborough County Commissioner. At the time, Commissioner Jim Norman was paid $72,000 a year by the county and $58,000 by the Salvation Army as a legislative analyst. Residents had accused Norman of siding with the Salvation Army. Norman had said he would not vote on the rezoning and said he did not know any specifics of the rezoning request. Lake Ellen homeowners were uncommonly aggressive in their opposition. The community hired the Fowler White law firm to represent them and held weekly meetings at the Lake Magdalene United Methodist Church. A group even formed a corporation and bought some property the Salvation Army had wanted. They made it clear that they didn't like the idea of emergency vehicles stored on the property. They resented the more than 100 employees driving through their neighborhood daily going to and from work. They even complained about neighborhood children climbing the fence at night and partying on the Salvation Army's dock. "If the Salvation Army stayed as it is now they really didn't bother me. It was when they attempted to encroach on the residential that I had a problem. Only when they attempted to get bigger and take over the street. We were afraid of the domino effect on property values," Messina said. Although the property is closer to Lake Magdalene, Hapner said Original Carrollwood homeowners got involved in the rezoning dispute when they learned that a planned access road would divert commercial trucks through Orange Grove Drive and McFarland and Lake Ridge roads. The road was taken out of those plans, but there's no guarantee it won't resurface when the property is sold. "I personally don't think the traffic was bad with the Salvation Army, but what goes in next could greatly impact traffic," Hapner said. The irony of the dispute is that the charity was in that neighborhood long before most of the residents who are now complaining. The building was a home for unwed mothers from the 1930s to the 1970s. In the mid-70s it was converted to an office building when the Salvation Army moved its state headquarters from Jacksonville to Carrollwood. There, organization administrators oversee operations for Florida's 52 branches. - To reach Tim Grant call 226-3471, or e-mail him at grant@sptimes.com.
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