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Highlands Today

Grove Owner Wants Swap With County

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: January 10, 2008

SEBRING — Two Highlands County commissioners, Don Bates and Guy Maxcy, launched negotiations through a designated county spokesman to obtain one acre of prime, white-sand-beach lakefront on troubled Lake Denton.

Maxcy and Bates asked Ken Melvin, one of the seven people on the commissioner-appointed Lake Denton Citizens Advisory Committee, to informally negotiate the county's obtaining that one-acre of Lake Denton lakefront with the president and CEO of a fifth-generation Highlands County citrus/ranch family.

That one-acre abuts the county's closed Lake Denton boat ramp, the only public access to what many people consider Highlands County's clearest and cleanest lake.

On Wednesday morning, Melvin met with Robert "Cruiser" Crews II, the president and CEO of Crews Groves Inc., which owns the one-plus acre shoreline property that fronts on Lake Denton Drive.

Melvin said he hopes Crews addresses the county commissioners soon.

In the meantime, he and Crews met for nearly two hours on Wednesday, first at the corporate headquarters of Crews Groves Inc. on the outskirts of Avon Park, then at the county's seldom-used boat ramp at Little Lake Bonnett.

Crews confirmed rumors that his company is offering to trade its one-acre of Lake Denton shoreline next to the county's closed Lake Denton boat ramp. In exchange, Crews said, the citrus company wants the county to close its boat ramp in the middle of Pinecrest Golf Course at Little Lake Bonnett.

Crews said the only county official he has discussed the proposed land swap with so far is county Administrator Carl Cool, and Cool never gave him a yes or no answer.

The Crews family's farm holdings include more than 3,000 acres of citrus groves, including Lake Denton Groves, and ranch land on which the company raises several thousand cattle.

Land-Swap OfferOn The Table

"I am offering to trade our Lake Denton lot, which is about one acre, for the county closing the boat ramp at Little Lake Bonnett," Crews told Highlands Today.

Why is this family-owned, citrus/ranch business, founded by Crews's great, great grandfather in the early 1940s, willing to give up an acre of prime Lake Denton shoreline in return for a small and not-well-maintained boat ramp at Little Lake Bonnett?

"We (the corporation) own a small share of the Pinecrest Golf Course, along with about 100-some other people," Crews answered. "We also own orange groves near the Little Lake Bonnett ramp and some vacant land there as well.

"If the county closes the boat ramp on Little Lake Bonnett," Crews continued, "then the right-of-way (boat ramp) would revert to the landowners on both sides, and that would be us, our corporation, as well as Pinecrest Golf Course, and the golf course would own more than us."

If and when that happens, Crews said, the county road into Pinecrest Golf Course "would move from a public road through a golf course to more of a private drive, which would be good for the possible gated community as we, the Crews family, develops it."

Crews said the citrus/ranch company owns about 40 acres near or on Little Lake Bonnett which are planned for multi-family units, plus 200 acres earmarked for single-family homes. The entire housing development would be "high end," Crews said, but he said it's too early to speculate about the housing and condo price points.

Crews Citrus Inc. CEO Willing To Talk

Asked if he's willing to address the county commissioners in a public meeting, Crews answered:

"Obviously, I'm willing to work with the county commissioners about trying to solve their issues at Lake Denton. And many people, including our company, think the county getting our one acre next to the closed boat ramp on Lake Denton would solve the county's problems there."

Melvin said he's optimistic that the Crews family business, in one way or another, will work out a deal in which the county will get the Crews Corporation's one-acre lakefront on Lake Denton to use for public recreation, including swimming and scuba diving.

"Don Bates and Guy Maxcy said they'd be glad if I would talk to Mr. Crews about this trade," Melvin said Wednesday, as he and Crews visited the Little Lake Bonnett boat ramp. The ramp was littered with empty 12-pack beer cases and other "partying"-related trash.

Melvin said if the trade of the county's shell-road boat ramp at Little Lake Bonnett for the Crews's lakefront acre on Lake Denton falls through, other equally attractive deals for the county can be arranged.

"There are other options, which Mr. Crews and I have already begun discussing, that would get the one-acre on Lake Denton, next to the closed boat ramp, for the county, at no cost to the county," Melvin said.

Solution To Lake Denton 'Issues'

When Crews said the swap would solve the county's "issues" at Lake Denton, he was referring to possible lawsuits and the loss of the county's so-called boat ramp to the heir of the original landowners who platted and dedicated Lake Denton Drive.

Crews said he thinks the proposed land swap would benefit the county in two ways. First, the county could provide public access for water-sport recreation on Lake Denton, he said. And second, he said, county taxpayers would benefit from 240 acres of vacant or citrus lands being converted into a high-end housing complex that would raise substantial property tax revenue.

The agenda for the Jan. 15 county commissioners meeting won't be released until Friday, so it's not known yet if commissioners will begin discussions about the Crews land-swap offer next week.

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