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Dock Builder Fined, But He Gets To Keep It

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2008

TAMPA - A Rocky Creek homeowner who cut down dozens of mangroves and built an illegal boat dock has to pay a $16,850 fine but will continue to have boat access to Tampa Bay.

Pedro Olivera signed a consent order this week with Hillsborough County's Environmental Protection Commission that allows him to keep a boat dock and seawall he built without proper permits. He also will be allowed to take a boat from his dock to the bay via Rocky Creek through a county preserve.

In addition to the fine, Olivera had to restore the shoreline of a canal he widened alongside his house and plant 400 mangroves to replace those he destroyed. He also will be limited to using shallow-draft boats in the preserve to prevent prop-dredging of seagrass.

"I complied with the agreement and I'm looking forward to continuing with my life," said Olivera, who works as a builder.

"I respect the environment and hopefully this is going to be over," he said.

The settlement, more than a year in the making, did not satisfy local fishermen and boaters who say the canal was really a former mosquito ditch covered over with mangroves. They suspect Olivera or someone else opened the canal to make his property more valuable.

"What you basically have is a canal that looks like it's about half the width of Hillsborough Avenue," said Fred Maixner, who grew up in the area and fished and camped on islands in Rocky Creek. "Having the intimate knowledge of that area back in the day, I can tell you it looks like something created by man."

Mosquito ditches, dug from the 1940s through the 1960s, are usually too shallow for anything with a deeper draft than a kayak or canoe. The canal leading from Olivera's house to Rocky Creek is up to 5 feet deep during high tides and 10 to 12 feet wide.

EPC officials say aerial maps show the ditch was widened into a canal as early as 1973.

"It was one of the largest canals in the area that was dug out," said Bob Stetler, head of the EPC wetlands protection division.

EPC officials say someone did widen and deepen the ditch into a navigable canal decades ago, well before Olivera built his three-story mansion on Troydale Road.

A 1973 aerial map of the area shows the canal much wider than mosquito ditches nearby.

The canal connects to a culvert on Troydale Road that discharges stormwater into it.

"That's probably what kept it open: the ebb and flow of the stormwater," Stetler said.

To protect the creek and preserve, the consent order prohibits Olivera from docking a boat with a draft of more than 18 inches.

That means the bottom of the boat's propeller can't be more than 18 inches below the water line.

"We wanted to make sure any boat parked at that dock would not be doing any prop-dredging in the rest of the preserve," said EPC attorney Andrew Zodrow.

Although Olivera built the dock and seawall without proper permits, the consent order allows them to stay.

EPC officials say evidence shows Olivera built his seawall over a pre-existing wall.

Olivera also signed an affidavit saying there was also a boat dock on his property before he built his.

"We would need some evidence to refute the affidavit," said EPC executive director Rick Garrity.

The EPC had originally offered Olivera a settlement of $14,000 in fines but rescinded the offer in April when the agency found out he was continuing to work on the boat dock without permits.
Olivera bought the property in 2004.

Frank DeAngelis, a Rocky Creek resident who first reported Olivera's unpermitted earthwork and dock to EPC, said the consent order will lead to manatee deaths in the canal and destruction of the preserve.

He said the county should put up a barrier in the canal at the edge of the preserve as it did at another mosquito ditch nearby that residents were trying to open up for personal watercraft.

Zodrow, the EPC attorney, said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has determined the canal is a historically navigable waterway.

Courts have determined it is illegal to fence off a navigable waterway, he said.

The county was able to fence off the other ditch because it was illegally dredged, Zodrow said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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