Taylor Morrison Development In Keystone To Be Scrutinized By County

ODESSA, FL — Rebuking the homebuilder for flouting county and state laws, the Hillsborough County Commission directed staff to review all permits and applications associated with a single-family home development under construction by Taylor Morrison in the Keystone area of Odessa and penalize the homebuilder to the fullest extent of the law.

The commission’s actions Wednesday came after a barrage of complaints from residents in the Keystone area concerning the homebuilder’s violation of the county’s tree ordinance, county and state laws protecting endangered wildlife and county laws prohibiting construction work on nights and weekends.

Keystone resident Melissa Nordbeck and her neighbors said they were under the impression that the 200-acre wooded property between Patterson and McGlamery roads, a habitat for the endangered gopher tortoise and part of the environnmentally sensitive Brooker Creek Watershed, had been purchased by the county under its Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program.

Residents, therefore, were surprised in January when bulldozers suddenly appeared on the property and proceeded to clear all the trees, including a number of protected grand oak trees.

While the county commission did acquire two sites totaling 543 acres for $11.6 million between Boy Scout and Patterson roads in April 2020, linking 10,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands in northeast Hillsborough County and creating a contiguous wildlife corridor, the 200-acre site wasn’t part of that purchase.

Instead, this property, zoned for 194 single-family homes on 10,000-square-foot lots in 1991, was subsequently sold to Taylor Morrison in December. And the homebuilder intends to take full advantage of its 30-year-old entitlements.

In the eight months since Taylor Morrison began site work on the property, resident Jeanne Holton Carufel, who owns 2 acres on nearby Echo Lake, said Taylor Morrison has continually violated county construction, development and environmental ordinances.

The neighbors documented a number of instances in which the construction teams worked outside the county’s approved construction hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. One resident took video of construction crews installing utilities in the right of way on a Sunday at 10:30 p.m. earlier this month.

When the residents alerted their county commission representative, Commissioner Ken Hagan, about the destruction of the trees without a permit, county staff immediately investigates.

The Hillsborough County Department of Natural Resources fined Taylor Morrison $310,000 for illegally cutting down trees, the largest fine given by the county this year, and ordered the developer to replace the trees.

But residents said the developer’s half-hearted effort to comply with the DNR’s order resulted in most of the replacements dying. Furthermore, to keep nosey neighbors from monitoring the site, construction crews piled dirt in front of the property, a process called stockpiling that’s also illegal.

“It seems they’re in a hurry to get this done before we can scrutizine their actions,” she said. “The Brooker Creek Watershed is being sacrificed for another high-priced housing project on small lots.”

The homebuilder is also being investigated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for violating state laws protecting the gopher tortoise including filling in the burrows in which the tortoises live without permission.

Nevertheless, construction hasn’t stopped.

Taylor Morrison didn’t respond to requests from Patch for comment. However, the company contends that the 1991 zoning on the property gives it the right to move forward without public notice or the approval of the county.

“Taylor Morrison has shown arrogance and disdain for the rule of law,” said Nordbeck who, along with about 200 other neighbors, filed suit against the homebuilder in June. “They have no respect whatsoever for Hillsborugh County laws and our community.”

A judge is scheduled to hear the residents’ lawsuit on Aug. 23. However, on Wednesday the residents pleaded with the commission to issue a stop order to prevent further damage to the property before the hearing.

“The sense of betrayal we feel is overwhelming,” said resident Kim Paulson, who noted that the residents fought to get the Keystone-Odessa Community Plan approved by the commission in 2001 to prevent this kind of scenario. “Taylor Morrison has been able to proceed without any public comment or oversight, working under the radar during the pandemic.”

“As we can all see, the neighbors are clearly frustrated,” said Hagan, who received more than 400 emails from residents. “The zoning was secured over 30 years ago before the Keystone community plan and before many of our zoning codes were adopted.

He said the county attorney’s office said the county has no control over the density of a zoning approved in 1991. As a result, the county had no choice but to issue Taylor Morrison a development order on May 5.

“But the builder still must get the proper permits for the work at both the site and in the right of way where utilities are being installed,” Hagan said.

Nevertheless, he said the county had no choice but to issue Taylor Morrison a development order on May 5 due to the existing zoning.

“Taylor Morrison has been extremely poor neighbors,” he said. “The Keystone community feels like they’re alone as another developer goes unchecked. Personally, I want to suspend their development permit today or issue a stop-work order. I personally would like to bring the wrath of God down on them.”

Commissioner Mariella Smith sympathized with the residents’ plight.

“I want to ensure residednts we are hearing them and looking into every tool at our disposal,” she said. “I feel the pain of the citizens seeing this moving forward even though it is completely contrary to their community plan.”

While the county can’t take away the entitlements that came with the zoning approved in 1991, Smith agreed that residents have legitimate concerns about the protection of wildlife and the watershed.

She said the county worked hard on its new regulations to protect endangered wildlife “and they’re outrageously slaughtering gopher tortoises and then paying the fines,” Smith said.

“Taylor Morrison are the worse of the bad actors that we see in that industry, cutting down trees, working at night without a permit,” she said. “And they consider the fines just the cost of doing business. They ask for forgiveness, not permission, and consistently thumb their nose at the rules. When someone is blatantly flouting the rules over and over, can’t we raise fines and penalties for bad actors?”

Since the county is a litigant in the lawsuit filed by the residents to void the May 5 development order, County Attorney Christine Beck advised the commission against issuing a stop-work order.

“Our best advice is to allow this process to be handled through regular development procedures rather than have this board issue a stop-work order,” she said.

However, she said there’s nothing preventing the commission from having staff review all of Taylor Morrison’s permits to insure the homebuilder is in conformity and then enforce county codes to the fullest extent.

The commission voted unanimously to have staff review all of Taylor Morrison’s permits and applications and then implement all enforcement measures including a stop-work order.

In their lawsuit, the resident argue that developers who feel they have vested entitlements are required to apply to be vested. That’s something Taylor Morrison never did. As a result, the development violates the density restrictions of the Keystone-Odessa Community Plan. And since Taylor Morrison is extending water and sewer lines the development, it also violates the county’s comprehensive land use plan prohibiting the extension of utilities outside the urban service area.

The residents are raising funds for their legal battle. For information, visit their website, Protect Keystone.