Article Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times

By C.T. Bowen 

Published November 14, 2016

NEW PORT RICHEY — Two residents of Gulf Harbors want a mulligan on a golf course purchase in their neighborhood.

Diane Theriault Kobernick of Southshore Drive and Susan L. Levine of Floramar Terrace are seeking to block the sale of the privately owned course to Pasco County for conversion to a park. In a complaint filed last week in Pasco Circuit Court, the women contend that the county used a flawed process to notify the public, paid an inflated price for the land and lacked authority to impose a new tax district on property owners to cover part of the sale price.

"I want the park; the imposition of the tax is what I'm opposing,'' Levine told the County Commission during a Sept. 27 public hearing.

She and Kobernick are asking a judge to order a new appraisal of the land and to require a second vote among the neighborhood property owners on whether to authorize the tax district, known as a municipal service benefit unit.

The county disputed the assertions.

"The county exceeded the noticing requirements for the creation of an MSBU, and the Board of County Commissioners followed all statutes and procedures applicable to the adoption of the ordinance,'' County Attorney Jeff Steinsnyder said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

The Pasco commission, on a 4-1 vote, approved the MSBU after the Sept. 27 public hearing. The deal calls for the county and 1,791 property owners to split the cost of the $1.2 million acquisition. The county is using its Penny for Pasco-financed environmental land program to cover its share of the expense to preserve the 50 acres. Property owners in the neighborhood would be required to pay the remainder through annual assessment projected at $100 for the purchase, improvements to turn the site into a passive park land and annual maintenance. Two-thirds of the proposed assessment is earmarked for the land costs and would expire after five years.

The golf course, an executive course of mostly short holes and a par of 60, opened in 1971 as an amenity within Gulf Harbors, one of the original high-end communities in west Pasco featuring canal-front lots leading to channels and the Gulf of Mexico.

The neighborhood developers sold the golf course to Marshall "Moe'' Springer in 1979, but a family trust shut it down a decade ago. Springer tried to sell the land to Lexington Homes in 2003 for $1.5 million, but Pasco County objected, saying the plan for 120 new homes would eliminate the neighborhood's open space. Springer later withdrew the rezoning application.

The county put the golf course on its environmental lands acquisition list in 2013, but was unable to come to terms on a price. The county appraisal valued the land at $600,000, but the seller's appraisal said it was worth $1.7 million. At the request of the Gulf Harbors Civic Association, the county pursued the joint purchase and settled on $1.2 million.

The commission unanimously approved the sale in May with the caveat that a plurality of Gulf Harbors property owners needed to authorize the assessment. Even that result is in dispute. In the complaint, Kobernick said she inspected the ballots and found only 47 percent supported the MSBU. Pasco County reported 944 ballots were returned by the Aug. 8 deadline and property owners approved the MSBU by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin.

The complaint alleges the county didn't provide proper public notice, failed to note that the assessment could result in a property lien if it goes unpaid, and the MSBU provided no special benefit to homeowners.

"Everything was crammed down our throats in 72 days,'' Levine said in an interview.

She raised many of the same concerns listed in the court complaint to the county in advance of the public hearing. A Sept. 26 memo from Senior Assistant County Attorney Nicki H. Spirtos to County Administrator Michele Baker refuted the allegations about due process violations and the appropriateness of the MSBU.

"The authors of the letters confuse county ordinances with the applicable state statutes, and misstate Florida law,'' Spirtos wrote.

Levine and Kobernick are acting as their own attorneys in the court complaint.

In an interview with the Times, Levine restated her support for turning the abandoned golf course into a neighborhood park, but said residents or a nonprofit group should own it to avoid the MSBU assessment continuing in perpetuity.

"We would love for there to be a park. We would love to own it,'' Levine said. "We want to own it and maintain it.''

The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Kimberly Sharpe-Byrd. No hearing has been scheduled.