Tampa Tribune, June 14th, 2003
BILL VARIAN. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Oct 17, 2003. pg. 1.B
A group of Egypt Lake property owners filed suit against Tampa Electric Co. Thursday seeking to force the utility to take down giant transmission poles it has erected in their neighborhood.
The lawsuit contends that the installation of the poles - some as tall as 125 feet and 3 feet wide - amounts to an unreasonable intrusion in a residential neighborhood. It asks a judge to order the poles removed immediately.
It also names Hillsborough County government as a defendant and asks the judge to rescind the permit that allowed the poles and block any new permits from being issued.
Alternately, the suit asks the judge to grant a trial by jury to consider whether the residents deserve compensation for a loss in property values caused by the new poles.
"Not only have they disturbed the character of a neighborhood, they've damn near destroyed it," said Paul Antinori, a former Hillsborough state attorney now practicing civil law in Tampa and Massachusetts. "It looks like an industrial zone.
"They have run roughshod over this neighborhood with a hubris that is truly shocking."
Antinori announced the lawsuit during a news conference at his home in the upscale Beach Park neighborhood in South Tampa. Conspicuously, his neighborhood has no power poles, not even the wooden ones that transmit electricity to individual houses.
In his neighborhood, the utility lines are buried. In the more modest Egypt Lake neighborhood of blue collar workers and retirees, Antinori said, Tampa Electric put cost savings over reason in installing the equivalent of an electronic "superhighway."
"If this were an affluent neighborhood, I am sure that the siting and routing of these poles would have been different," Antinori said.
A Tampa Electric spokesman would speak only generally about the lawsuit, noting that the company held a series of public meetings last week with residents in and near the northwest Hillsborough neighborhood seeking a solution. Ross Bannister said the company intends to assemble a list of alternatives for addressing the power pole flap that has developed since the company began installing the transmission lines this summer.
"We are in the middle of a public dialogue to find an alternative to the current configuration of the project," Bannister said. "We do want it to continue.
"We're not planning to stop or delay our commitment to finding and implementing an alternative solution that is acceptable to our customers."
Christine Beck, a chief assistant county attorney, said she was still analyzing the lawsuit and couldn't comment.
Egypt Lake residents have been protesting the installation of the giant poles since they began appearing in their neighborhood without notice. A group of them, including some of those who brought the lawsuit, staged a rally at TECO Plaza in downtown Tampa Thursday.
County officials have said local ordinances never contemplated such large transmission poles going into neighborhoods and therefore provided no legal means to stop the project. So it was approved with minimal review.
The issue attracted the attention of Hillsborough Commissioner Kathy Castor, who initially but unsuccessfully sought to have the poles removed. Instead, she won support from her fellow board members to require better public notice, closer scrutiny and public hearings before such large poles can be erected in neighborhoods.
Tampa City Council member John Dingfelder asked Thursday whether the city could create an ordinance that required utilities to notify residents before they installed poles. Some of the Egypt Lake poles are within city limits, though the council has largely been silent on the issue so far.
"I wanted to make sure that no place in the city got blindsided without notice," Dingfelder said.
City attorneys will study the issue and report back, he said.
More lawsuits may follow. Another group of residents is consulting with a different set of attorneys but has not yet taken action. Other residents may decide not to sue, but nevertheless want the poles removed, said Lake Egypt Estates Civic Association president Joe Rowe, who is among them.
Of the suit filed Thursday, Antinori said Hillsborough's Comprehensive Plan for new development places a premium on preserving neighborhoods, and that is violated by the Egypt Lake poles. Similarly, a neighborhood bill of rights created at the behest of former Hillsborough Commissioner Joe Chillura promises protection that should extend to electric utilities.
However, Antinori said his lawsuit relies on the common law concept of private nuisance that dates back centuries and is based on reason. Under this law, he said, it would be unreasonable for your next-door neighbor in an established neighborhood to, say, turn his home into a junkyard, because it would diminish the enjoyment of your property.
Antinori said most of his 30 clients named in the suit have property that runs adjacent to the right of way in which the poles were installed.
The lawsuit also raises the specter that large power lines pose a health risk, an issue that has been debated scientifically. However, Antinori said what is important with his lawsuit is that people perceive there is a health risk, and that that perception alone diminishes property values. So he said he won't have to argue the scientific merits of the claim.
Finally, the suit claims the company had a reasonable alternative to run its electric transmission lines along more busy, commercial roadways near Egypt Lake. Antinori said Tampa Electric strictly placed cost savings above the interests of his clients, ruining the enjoyment of their property without consideration.
"I call that not corporate greed, but corporate arrogance," he said.