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Commission agonizes over boat slip dispute
By HARLAN WEIKLE
Article published on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 |
BELLEAIR – As the saying goes, “be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” That’s precisely what happened to Town Commissioners Tuesday night when settling a difficult dispute became a decision worthy of Solomon.
The issue began 16 years ago when the developers of Seaside at Belleair, condos being built along the Intracoastal Waterway, sought to ensure that the sale of 24 boat slips included in the project be restricted to condo owners or homeowners in the associated Residential Planned District. The 1992 commission acquiesced and the resulting ordinance satisfied everyone.
That was then. Times have changed.
The slump in housing prices, a rush to the water by landlocked boaters and the inevitable transference of slip ownership through estate sales, third party purchases and lack of recordation and enforcement by the town, has led to a range war of sorts, with the condo residents and the associated RPD homeowners pitted against non-resident boat slip owners.
Commissioner Stephanie Oddo took the lead Tuesday.
“It’s sad that these two groups can’t come to some equitable resolution,” she said.
Oddo made an impassioned plea for compromise based on the right of first refusal belonging to homeowners within the condo-Residential Planned District, a tack aimed at offsetting the gradual loss of resident slip ownership through attrition.
Citing her anguish over what she called the most difficult decision she has been asked to make since taking office last year, Oddo said she supports a change in the ordinance allowing slip sales to non-resident RPD buyers after a process of right of first refusal is granted the condo owners.
A third party, the Seaside at Belleair Marina Association, has a stake in this as well. Following the condo and Residential Planned District homeowners, marina users represent the newest arrivals vying for water access. It was Fred Thomas, the spokesperson for this group, speaking as well for the homeowners association, who admitted there were conflicted attitudes about the right and wrong of this, but in the end it is the present commission that must make the hard decision.
“Promises were broken and that’s sad,” he said. “But now it’s about how to divide the baby.”
Following a statement by the attorney for the marina association, whose membership consists primarily of non-residents and which supports the sale of boat slips outside the Residential Planned District after satisfying the first refusal rights for condo owners, condo owner Ron Perrott rose to defend his own rights.
“I know I have an uphill fight but I need to be heard,” Perrott said. “This is about getting it back to where it was. It’s not about profit, but promises.”
Perrott told the commission that the town made a mistake when it failed to enforce the original ordinance and now it was time to correct the oversight.
“If I can’t offer a slip to my potential buyer, why then my property value is diminished. I’m harmed,” he said.
There are currently just 24 slips to accommodate more than 500 condo owners.
After unsuccessfully urging all sides to return to negotiations aimed a finding an equitable compromise, the commission reluctantly agreed to direct Town Attorney David Ottinger to tighten the legal language regarding the right of first refusal recommendation of the marina association, thus clearing the way for sales outside the Residential Planned District and return with an ordinance that corrects a wrong that happened 16 years ago.
In other business Tuesday, resident Joseph Johnson received the town’s Humanitarian Award for his efforts to assist those in need of medical assistance in the rural African communities of Zimbabwe. Johnson, who is a second year medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine, delayed entrance to medical school and journeyed to Africa, spending several months lending aid and addressing the continuing health needs of the poverty-stricken population.
After contracting malaria, Johnson was forced to return home where he has been able to return to his studies and along with fellow Drexel students Lilliam Ambroggio, Justin Stone and Sarah Koller began the Sidobe Project, a charitable 501(c)3 in partnership with the International Clinical Epidemiology Network. The project provides supplies and financial support to a newly created sustainable holistic health center in the village of Sidobe just outside Victoria Falls. Health care in the area is critically important for this community where it is estimated that three fourths of the population exists on less than $400 a month.
For more on the Sidobe Project, visit www.holistichealthinternational.org.
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Article published on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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