County Seeks To Eliminate Eyesores On US 27

Highlands County commissioners decided Tuesday to give property owners 60 days to come up with initial plans to eliminate what county Engineer Ramon Gavarrete called an "eyesore" within a two-block commercial strip on the west side of US 27, just north of Lakeshore Mall.

Unauthorized signs have been placed in the county's 80-foot-wide right-of-way, which customers of some businesses have been using as an unauthorized parking area, Gavarrete told the commissioners.

The stores, across from the Bay Pines subdivision, run north for two blocks from Sparrow Drive along the Broadway frontage road to where it dead-ends north of Whatley Boulevard.

The new Heacock Insurance building anchors the south end of the strip, which includes the Florida Department of Highway Safety's Division of Driver's Licenses, Amscot, Country Motors, Pinch-A-Penny, jt's leather, Campbell's Collision, Eldridge Pollard Sales, and several other stores.

For many years, Gavarrete said, customers of some stores within that strip have been parking in front of the businesses, on a shell surface or on grass, in the right of way, between the frontage road and US 27.

Talks between Gavarrete and some of the property owners led to a proposed solution: the property owners would pay for a beautification project approved by the commissioners, in return for being allowed to have parking within the right of way.

Any parking would have to be on a permitted, paved lot, Gavarrete said, and a limited number of signs, probably one or two advertising all of the businesses, would be allowed. The commissioners would have to approve details of signs allowed as well as the asphalt parking lots and the property owners' beautification project.

Representatives of two businesses, Heacock Insurance and Eldridge Pollard Sales, expressed interest in the proposal after county officials began talking with property owners in the spring of 2008, Gavarrete said. But, he said, he hadn't heard from the other six property owners.

Mike Buyea, one of the property owners, said he didn't know of the proposal until mid-December, when the county sent certified letters to the property owners.

"I would very much like to be included in this," he said.

Buyea said his property has plenty of on-site parking. But, he said, other property owners have limited on-site parking and there were no guidelines for parking when some of the buildings were built more than 30 years ago.

Craig Johnson, one of the property owners, said the commissioners should either let business owners improve the parking area within the right of way, or completely eliminate parking in that area.

Gavarrete was instructed to report back to the county commission within 60 days on which property owners make commitments to the beautification project.