Polk commissioners: Safari Adventures hearing not possible

Polk County commissioners say it is too late to hold a public hearing on an animal theme park that former Lowry Park Zoo CEO Lex Salisbury is building.

Neighbors have complained that the only public notice about the planned development was a June 2006 classified ad that ran a few times in The Lakeland Ledger and say that wasn't adequate.

"I mean we really had no inkling of anything going on, on that property and so we would've had no reason to be looking for any notification in the newspaper," said Lois Murphy, who lives about 2 miles north of the project on rural Moore Road.

County officials decided in 2006 to classify the animal park Safari Adventures as a recreational facility with low intensity, eliminating the chance for public hearings.

Salisbury and his business partner, St. Petersburg veterinarian Stephen Wehrmann, informed the county in 2006 they planned a development that would attract up to 500 paying visitors a day.

County Commissioner Jean Reed said that two former county employees were responsible for the decision on how to classify the park.

"They have not been here for a couple of years so I can't go to them and say, 'What on earth were you thinking, allowing this to go through?' " Reed said.

Reed thinks neighbors deserved more notification.

Sam Johnson, commission chairman, said he would expect better notification if he lived near Safari Adventures, adding: "What was done was done. We have to move forward."

Johnson added: "This is probably one of those cases that's another reminder to each of us not to take anything for granted, that we need to pay attention when we read the paper to see what's going on.''

Safari Adventures sits in Johnson's district. Johnson sat on the commission when county staffers determined the animal attraction would fall under the recreational facility classification and would have about as much impact as a playground, a park or a jogging path.

"I just look at it from the standpoint, these are animals and the kids are going out there to look at them and it's not really a zoo setting," Johnson said. "That's really kind of how I saw it."

Murphy disagrees. "It may not sound like much of a nuisance or an inconvenience, but when you're in a very quiet rural area like this it doesn't take much to seem like a lot," Murphy said.