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Homeowner Allowed To Keep Fence

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By STEPHEN HAMMILL, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2007

Updated: 10/11/2007 07:11 pm

KEYSTONE - Another skirmish took place this week in the war between rural life and encroaching development, as Martha Hunt sought to put up a fence in front of her home.

Hunt was fighting a condition of a rezoning ordinance that prohibits her from removing the rural, wooden fence in front of her house on Wayne Road and replacing it with one with masonry columns, black, wrought-iron lights and aluminum fencing.

She met with the Hillsborough County Commission on Tuesday to appeal her case. Four members of the Keystone Civic Association attended in an effort to thwart her and to argue for an adherence to an agreement negotiated years ago.

Paula Harvey, from the county's zoning administration, recommended the commissioners approve Hunt's request to build a modern fence. The motion to approve carried 7-0.

Hunt's request was in accordance with the Keystone regulations and the land development code, but it differed from the specific zoning condition confined nine years ago to six lots on Wayne Road.

Those conditions called for a specific type of rural fencing, stating 'There shall be no wall constructed along Wayne Road. It shall be rural. It shall be spilt rail, cross fencing, post and/or wire; wood, not plastic, not metal, not vinyl, not concrete, not brick.'

In 1998, then county commission chairman Thomas Scott signed off on those conditions. The board reversed that decision Tuesday.

'The Keystone Civic Association supported this rezoning with all the conditions back in 1998, and today you're being asked to change/waive/modify one of these for one home. The language was quite specific,' said Barbara Dowling to the commissioners, on behalf of the association.

Hunt has lived in Tampa for 25 years. She moved into her new home on Wayne Road in January. She said she didn't understand how she could have a permit to build a fence but not be allowed to do it.

Wayne Road resident Steve Morris worked with the original owners of Hunt's property in 1998 and said those negotiations were a give-and-take process, and to allow for a change to the language now would be detrimental to the community.

'Keeping our rural character during this process was paramount and cost us several major concessions in return for making this a reality,' he said. 'In order to lessen the impact of this development in our rural community we demanded any fencing along Wayne Road would be rural in nature and stay that way. What she's trying to do is not a rural fence.'

Commissioner Rose Ferlita, along with the rest of the commission, sided with Hunt.

'The problem I'm having here is not allowing her to pick one of the fence designs that the rest of the community is allowed to have because she lives on Wayne Road and others don't,' she said.

'I'm happy about the decision,' Hunt said, 'but I am still angry at having to go through all this.'

Morris said he thinks the decision was an example of the commission's deference to developers.

'When a developer is standing here citing code, the commissioners bend over backwards for them,' he said. Morris, who lives on Wayne Road, called code enforcement this year when he noticed Hunt removing her wooden fence. When they told her to stop building the fence, she got angry.

'What gives them the right to dictate my security? A modern, million-dollar house guarded by a horse fence doesn't make sense,' she said. 'It's invading the right that I have - me and my family - to safety.'

She said the association was trying to bully her.

'So much power has been given to the' Keystone Civic Association, she said. 'I think these people have abused their power.'

'That's not true. I was acting as a private citizen, not as a representative of the' association, Morris said.

Odessa resident Karen Rafferty lamented the board's decision.

'This area is known for its farms, groves and lakes,' she said. 'That is why the conditions of rezoning for this project development state the fencing will be rural in nature.'

'We give up things to get things,' Dowling said, citing the negotiations that took place with the developers in 1998. She said the decision will cause the association to be less likely to make additional concessions with developers.

Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or at shammill@tampatrib.com.

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