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County land is smack in the middle of a property squabble

By Theresa Blackwell, Times Staff Writer
In print: Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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PALM HARBOR — Pinellas County officials say they like to keep out of neighborhood squabbles. But this time, the county is one of the neighbors.

In 2000, the county bought a quarter-acre lot on Robin Trail in the Blue Jay Woodlands subdivision. It was part of a Klosterman Road drainage project and two large drainage pipes lie beneath the lot.

But what's happening above ground is the problem: The county lot is smack in the middle of suburban warfare.

The resident to the north has built an addition partly on the lot and uses the land as a storage area, according to neighbors. The resident to the south received county permission to plant bushes on the lot. And the resident to the west is tired of watching neighbors treat county property as if it were their own.

Hoping to end the frequent complaints to the Sheriff's Office and code enforcement, county officials say they've come up with a solution. They're building a 6-foot fence around the lot.

The conflict has stirred a lot of emotion. When you ask neighbors about it, their voices grow louder, their speech quickens and they become visibly agitated. Listen to each of them long enough and you start to see things their way.

• • •

Richard and Jenny Bergeron live just north of the county lot with their daughter, Isis, 17 months, and their 2-year-old Doberman, Sam.

The Bergerons had their lot surveyed in 2006 before adding on to their house. But when the county did another survey later, they determined the Bergerons' addition was on county land.

Richard Bergeron, a pharmacist, says he paid the county nearly $1,000 to review his site plans and look at zoning issues before building the addition. And his plans were approved.

He's offered to buy most of the county lot, leaving just the county's drainage pipes and an easement around them.

But attempts to reach an agreement failed. The county is no longer willing to sell but has offered to swap the land the house sits on for part of the Bergerons' second, undeveloped lot. The lot is between the Bergerons' house and their neighbor to the west, the Galantes.

Richard Bergeron said a land swap would make his second lot too small to build on, so he's not interested.

But he does want to stop the county from building the fence because it would block access to a canal on the county lot, obstructing their view of the water.

He has circulated a petition and collected signatures from 29 people opposed to building the fence, which he submitted to the Pinellas County Commission.

"My wife and I, we love to go to the water to fish," he said. "We had a beautiful lot to look at and now we're going to have a fence."

The complaints from his neighbors have nothing to do with the lot, he said. He thinks one neighbor suspects him of turning him in for a code violation and the other just wants to keep him from building on his undeveloped lot.

• • •

Complaints have flown between the Bergerons and the owners of a property just to the south of the county lot, which county property records show is owned by Lucy Cacciuttolo and Maria Denmark.

At the front door of their home last week, a man gave his name to a reporter as Lou Denmark. A woman identified herself as Maria Denmark. He stood in the doorway; she, behind the door jam.

"He built his house on county property, knowingly," he said.

"Knowingly!" she added.

"He's a speculator," he said.

"And he's the worst neighbor I've had in 50 years," she said.

"He wanted to split his lot up and sell both of them," he said.

"He's an animal!" she said.

Among their complaints: The Bergerons' dog scratched their back door and they put a cardboard "finger" in a back window for months.

The Bergerons laughed when asked about the finger sign, saying it was more the accusing neighbor's style. Both neighbors say the other neighbor cut up thorny sticks and threw them around the county lot.

• • •

The third neighbors, Rick and Denise Galante, admit that they do not want a house built on the vacant lot. And Denise Galante says she's watched owner after owner living in the Bergerons' house treat the county lot as if they owned it.

"I've been trying to get the property fenced since 2004," she said last week.

The Bergerons have stored their boat, building materials for the addition and more on the county lot, Galante said. The Bergerons say they thought much of that land was on their property until recently, but Denise Galante doesn't buy that.

"He's not a stupid man," she said. "He knows where his property lines are."

• • •

County officials are planning to build the fence soon. But the complaints may continue. On Monday, Bergeron called a reporter to say the Galantes have built a parking lot across Frontage Road, on a different county lot.

"Maybe we need another fence," he said.

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.