DADE CITY — Pasco commissioners have approved a plan to divide a dozen acres of commercial land into four lots, three months after delaying the application because of a property dispute involving the family of Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.
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Starkey declared a conflict of interest and abstained from Tuesday’s vote.
The request to divide the land came from 54 West Inc., which is suing companies owned by Starkey’s husband, J.B. "Trey” Starkey III, and her brother-in-law, Frank Starkey, over a disputed drainage easement on the property at the northeast corner of State Road 54 and Starkey Boulevard.
The suit, pending in Pasco Circuit Court, contends the Starkeys’ Longleaf Development Co., Starkey Ranch Investment Co., SRI2 LLC and Starkey Blueberry Farm interfered with 54 West’s ability to develop its property by improperly claiming a surface water drainage easement on the land. Two Starkey companies formerly owned the land, but a bank took control in 2012 after filing a foreclosure lawsuit. 54 West acquired the land from the bank in 2013, 14 years after J.B. Starkey Jr. had granted a perpetual drainage easement over the property to Longleaf Development.
The validity of that easement is at the heart of the lawsuit, which was filed in May 2016. 54 West Inc., headed by real estate developer Gary Blackwell, has sold portions of the land to Circle K Stores and to JB Trinity LLC of Lakeland, which is developing a medical building there.
On Tuesday, attorney Kurt Davis of Tampa, representing Longleaf, asked the commission to defer its decision until the court case is settled.
"We’re simply saying it’s premature now,” said Davis, who suggested the county could end up a party in the lawsuit if it approved the plat.
County Attorney Jeff Steinsnyder, however, said the commission had to approve the requested plat because it complied with state law.
The arguments between Longleaf and 54 West, he told commissioners, "is a "private title dispute, best left to the courts.”
The commission did not act on the request to divide the 12.4 acres when the item appeared on the Oct. 25 commission agenda. Steinsnyder said then that he and County Engineer Margaret Smith recommended delaying the matter until the county surveyor could determine if the plan involved the easement under litigation.
The delay, two weeks before the November elections, spurred criticism from Starkey’s political opponent, who said she was too entrenched in real estate development to also serve as a county commissioner. Starkey was re-elected with 62 percent of the vote.
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