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Pools At Issue In City Code

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By GEORGE WILKENS

gwilkens@tampatrib.com

Published: March 4, 2009

PLANT CITY - The city is about to tighten code enforcement regulations to prohibit algae-covered swimming pools like one that rallied frustrated Gilchrist Heights residents to action last year.

A 7:30 p.m. Monday public hearing is scheduled on a proposed city code amendment addressing stagnant water. The hearing will be held during the commission's regular meeting at City Hall, 302 W. Reynolds St.

City Manager David Sollenberger said the proposed amendment was spawned by last year's problem with a backyard swimming pool owned by Fran Neilsen.

The stagnant pool behind that vacant house at 1101 N. Knight St. prompted neighbors to post yard signs protesting the property's condition last spring. Some signs included photographs of the algae-covered pool they said emitted foul odors that aggravated respiratory problems and sometimes overflowed into adjacent yards.

The proposed amendment "would allow the city to clean up the mess and assess it against the property owner," Sollenberger said. "A lot of the complaints were that it was a mosquito breeding ground," he said of the Neilsen pool. "We didn't have any means to deal with that, but this will provide it."

Proposed code additions include a paragraph stating: "Stagnant or insufficiently treated water, in a pool, pond or container of any kind, which has water in which algae is allowed to grow or in which mosquitoes or other insects are able to breed is prohibited and declared to be a public nuisance."

Should the cited problem remain uncorrected after 20 days, the city will remedy the problem and assess the costs to the property owner, backed up by a property lien if the debt is unpaid after a month, states the proposed amendment.
Knight Street residents, who also complained about a shredded blue tarp on the storm-damaged roof of the house, said they tried for three years to force repairs or condemnation. They alleged the city was dragging its feet because the owner is a longtime Christmas parade co-chair and former city planning board member. The city denied it gave Neilsen any special treatment.

The pool owner drained it in May. On Oct. 14, however, the code enforcement board levied a $1,600 fine against Neilsen for failure to repair the weather-damaged eaves of the house within 10 days.

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4433.

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