News
CLEARWATER — A local artificial-grass crusader sparring with the city has won a major turf battle — but not the turf war.
City leaders said Thursday they would drop their code enforcement case against Carol Korotkow and her synthetic lawn, ending a six-month fight that some said bordered on farce.
But an ordinance that would have allowed anyone to install fake grass has been punted into next year, with some on the City Council dubbing it an "administrative nightmare."
Relieved she could keep her lawn intact, Korotkow, 55, still called it "an empty victory." She vowed to take her fight to Tallahassee legislators who could make the turf legal statewide.
City Council members, however, showed little sympathy, saying they had already overextended to help someone who violated the city code. Said member Paul Gibson: "It could have felt like an empty loss."
Korotkow, a nurse, paid $3,300 last summer to cover less than a quarter of her lawn on Spencer Avenue with Mirage "waterless grass." The recycled-plastic turf needs no water or fertilizer, resists bugs and weeds and stays green all year long.
But a neighbor's complaint dispatched city inspectors, who ruled the turf was unacceptable. Korotkow, they said, could either cut it out or face a $100 daily fine.
Korotkow called it a travesty that city leaders were fighting a water-free lawn in an age of water restrictions and droughts. But officials said allowing the newfangled turf opened up environmental and enforcement issues.
Just imagine: What if people installed blue or orange turf? Let it accumulate trash and dog droppings? Coupled it with tacky synthetic trees?
In July, the council asked city staff to mull over what an artificial-turf law might look like. After months of research and meetings with community boards, they compiled seven pages of standards they presented to the council this week.
The turf, the proposed ordinance read, would need "green lifelike blades." It would have to conform to rules of height, density and hygiene. And it couldn't look like the outdoor carpeting known as AstroTurf.
Korotkow liked the ordinance and said she was "pleasantly surprised." The council wasn't so impressed. Members questioned how it would drain, what it would be made of and how homeowners would deal with utility companies digging through the expensive turf.
"I still see so many holes in it that I think it would cause us endless problems," Mayor Frank Hibbard said. "There are consequences to all this that could last years and years and years."
The council moved to postpone the ordinance vote until February — after the Jan. 31 City Council election — so the new council members could decide.
But Korotkow said she doesn't plan to retreat. She wants the state to classify synthetic turf alongside Florida-friendly landscaping techniques like xeriscaping, effectively skipping local restrictions.
Friday morning, Korotkow sought to enlist the help of state Rep. Ed Hooper, who said he had "intervened enough to where they were going to leave her yard alone."
Hooper, a former Clearwater city commissioner, said Friday he told some city leaders to "quit worrying about orange turf or blue turf — make it green and pass an ordinance."
But the idea of overstepping city and county land development codes, he said, wouldn't likely gain much state support.
"That's Carol, bless her heart. That's her burning passion right now," Hooper said. "I don't know that I would be able to achieve what she would like me to achieve."
Contact Drew Harwell at (727) 445-4170 or dharwell@tampabay.com.
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