Ooooo, Scary: Owners Defend Property

Posted by ottoman1 on September 3, 2015

By Tom Jackson
Tampa Tribune (Florida)
Saturday, January 7, 2006

It is interesting, if not downright comical, how top members of the preservationist movement in remote, rural northeast Pasco responded to countermeasures undertaken by so-called defenders of private property rights.

As Northeast Pasco Concerned Citizens leader Sharon Hanna-West told the Tribune’s Julia Ferrante, “There is no reason to resort to scare tactics.”

At issue is a mailer that might have been designed by the Grim Reaper, featuring a blackened tombstone engraved with words designed to chill the bones of landowners across the region: Pasco County Private Property Rights, R.I.P. .. Passed Away Due to Complacency By Citizens.
In this case, the Ghost of Land-Use Plans Yet-To-Come is Clarke Hobby, a Tampa-based attorney for East Pasco Agricultural Landowners, which financed the flier and its distribution.

Complained Hanna-West, “How can we combat a mass mailing like that?” But Hobby was unapologetic. The mailer was intended to “grab people’s attention” in hopes of explaining that “what [is] going on with the comp plan” exceeds what is “necessary or advisable.”

You Mean It’s Not A Sachet?

In short, for all their talk about preserving vistas and maintaining the area’s rural flavor, Concerned Citizens is playing hardball, wrapped in calico and freshened with a sprig of dried flowers though it may be. And the region’s big landowners – described by Hobby as farmers and citrus grove owners – have replied in kind.

They should have. It’s a high-stakes game with millions in development dollars on the table. Never mind Hobby’s salt-of-the-earth rhetoric. His clients may well “share a deep affection for Pasco County and do not wish to see ill come of it.” But the pressure to maintain viability in the face of international pressures (including the practices of state-supported dumping and subsidies), especially when viewed against the backdrop of soaring raw land values, turns the romance of agriculture on its head.

Even landowners who would prefer to see their land remain undeveloped have reason to dread an unfavorable decision on future uses. In certain circumstances, the county or the regional water-management district is willing to purchase development rights; such an action maintains open spaces while allowing landowners to extract the market value while continuing to farm, ranch or simply watch the grass grow. Slashing the development opportunities would hamper the landowner’s bottom line.
Shoe, Meet Other Foot

Not that we are supposed to feel sorry for those sitting on dozens, hundreds or even thousands of acres of land in northeast Pasco, however altruistic they may be. A strong case can be made that the health of the county – indeed, the well-being of that portion of central Florida – hinges on keeping green spaces green. Small wonder that momentum has moved lately, perhaps properly, in the direction of limited growth.

But the irony is not lost on us that, here again, latecomers – Hanna-West fled with her family from Lutz four years ago; her chief ally, Richard Riley, retired to Trilby from Maine three years ago – are eager to slam shut and lock the gate behind them.

So maybe Hobby’s clients resorted to “scare tactics.” If somebody new moved in to your neighborhood and started messing with the rules, what would you do?

GRAPHIC: It is interesting, if not downright comical, how top members of the preservationist movement in remote, rural northeast Pasco responded to countermeasures undertaken by so-called defenders of private property rights.