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Possible Dock Exemption Navigates Protests

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 27, 2007

HUDSON - Lynne Marie Flareau had two docks and a boat lift installed several years ago at her home on Fifth Isle in the Gulf-front Leisure Beach community.

The docks stuck about 2 feet farther into the canal adjacent to Flareau's house than allowed under county rules, prompting county officials to ticket Flareau in 2006.

The county dropped the case only to reinstate it this spring when state officials gave the county control over maintaining navigation on local waterways.

Now, county officials are considering letting Flareau keep her docks and lift as they are, granting her an exemption to county rules regulating the size of the structures.

Last week, the county's Development Review Committee scheduled a hearing on Flareau's exemption, but delayed the hearing until Feb. 28 after Flareau's neighbors protested.

Leisure Beach resident Steve Byle has filed a lawsuit on behalf of about 150 residents in the case.

"Everybody who has to go to the Gulf has to go past that dock," said Byle, who has a 19-foot fishing boat.
County officials say Flareau's structures pose no risk to boat traffic on the 70-foot-wide canal.
Byle disagrees. He said the state of the canal, which is narrowed by plant life encroaching from Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park to the south, makes it more difficult to navigate than county officials understand.

The canal, like others punctuating Pasco's Gulf coastline, was cut through solid limestone. That leaves little leeway for boaters, Byle said.

"I'd be lying if I said I couldn't live with the situation," Byle said. "But we have other people who have 40-foot sailboats and those big deck boats that steer like a bar of soap."

Forcing Flareau to remove or rebuild her docks and lift would be tantamount to treating her unfairly compared to her neighbors, who also have docks, the county's staff has argued.

Here, again, Byle says the county - and Flareau - are in the wrong.

"It's unfair to ask us to put our boats at risk," Byle said of Flareau's docks. "They were illegal from the get-go."
Byle is an outspoken member of the Leisure Beach community, who has made a name for himself over the years by taking on county officials.

In response to the county's proffered exemption for Flareau, Byle filed a lawsuit on Dec. 19 asking the Circuit Court to slap down the DRC's effort to regulate the dock and boatlift.
Byle argues that the county rules governing navigation don't give the DRC permission to grant the kind of exemptions it's considering for Flareau.
Byle wants county commissioners to review the situation directly.
County officials say that Byle is misinterpreting county rules.

"He's looking at it from a very narrow perspective," said Assistant County Attorney Joe Richards.

Richards wrote the rules regulating docks and boat lifts and says they designate the DRC to oversee the structures.

"We just want compliance," Richards said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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