You can have a 572-acre rock mine across the street from a major
hospital, but you can’t create art on a tree farm in Hernando County
May 10, 2022
Brooksville, Florida
Recently, the Hernando
County Commission met to hear some folks complain about a neighbor whose lawyer
said was operating an ugly, unsightly, smelly, dusty, noisy, industrial
manufacturing plant in a rural/agricultural area which should not be allowed in
Hernando County.
They put up slides
showing tall steel structures that could be seen above the 6-foot privacy fence
erected by the next-door property owner as well as a cloud of "dust"
caused by what they claimed was from sandblasting.
Friends of the
complaining neighbor swore under oath that they, too, could see the structure
and hear the noises of the offensive goings on. They said the conditions were
so bad they could no longer sit on their porches or look out their kitchen
windows and not be offended by the activities of the new neighbor.
If you did not know the
truth behind all this, you might agree it’s just awful that sights and sounds
of such things should not be allowed to encroach upon a neighbor’s right to the
quiet and bucolic views of country living in our Hernando County.
But, oh how reality and
truth can get tossed aside in the contorted legalese of lawyers arguing before
a lay board who are not lawyers, who have not studied the laws they are elected
to apply, and who are sometimes driven more by election politics than the
execution of fairness and right. Truth can get overlooked and even avoided in
such hearings and right can suffer. And this is what so egregiously happened at
that hearing.
The allegedly offending
neighbors are one, John Henry, who just happens to be one of the most highly
revered living sculptors in the world, and his wife Pamela. This is a man and
wife team who have been recognized by the international art community their
entire lives and somehow decided Hernando County is where, at least for the
moment, they want to spend the rest of their lives. We all, it would seem for
many obvious reasons, should be so very fortunate to have them reside here and
become members of our county community.
So, what, really, were
the Henrys doing that was so egregiously unacceptable that the Commissioners
decided to ban activities on their 30-plus acres after the next year ending May
31, 2023, to such an extent that Mr. Henry will be prevented from continuing to
create on their own property the magnificent art sculptures for which he is
known around the world? What could be so unacceptable that it was suggested he
create his art in another county?
When the Henrys moved
here, the property was an ongoing farming operation where palm trees were grown
and sold. The property is also located on a major highway and within a mile, as
a crow flies, of one of the busiest north/south interstate thoroughfares in Florida.
Some of these trees are tall and can only be excavated and loaded on flatbed
semi-tractor trailer trucks using large cranes, an activity that was happening
before the Henrys but apparently never bothered any of the now-complaining
neighbors in the past.
Mr. Henry's getting
older. Born in 1943 he is approaching 80 years. He is known for his bold and
towering steel and aluminum structures that museums, galleries and private
collectors have purchased and displayed throughout the world. To make these structures,
welding, grinding, and painting is required, and some are just too large to
assemble in an enclosed building. He is in the process of finishing two of
these structures. After completion, they will be disassembled and shipped to
their buyer or display location.
The point here is that
what he does on the property is not smelly, dirty, or offensive. It does not
entail dozens of workers laboring through long shifts to manufacture thousands
of widgets, day in and day out, which are then shipped in trucks daily going in
and out from a dark smoking plant, as was so disingenuously implied by the
complainants’ attorney and the testifying neighbors.
It is indisputable that
the property is an ongoing agricultural operation of growing and selling
hundreds if not thousands of palm trees for harvesting and marketing. The fact
that Mr. Henry is an artist who has the personal wherewithal to also produce and
sell art from his farm was inexplicably discounted when the Commission Chair
observed that he was fully aware of Mr. Henry’s distinction as a globally
appreciated artist, but that fact was not pertinent to the purposes of the
hearing. But, of course, it was.
The alleged
objectionable activity is to produce art, not to manufacture widgets. If this
had been acknowledged from the beginning, it would have allowed a better
appreciation for the fact that the “pertinent” activity is infrequent and would
have underscored the fact that the sounds and sights associated therewith are
not any more objectionable than what any reasonably sized agricultural
operation might produce. This was simply not considered. Anyone who lives next
to a farm knows this and many folks in Hernando County do. It was a significant
oversight by the Commissioners.
Other unfair things
happened at that hearing. Misinformation was given to the commissioners who
then struggled for several hours trying to understand what they have the
authority to do and what they should do with it. At one point, the
complainants’ lawyer had them seemingly convinced they had no authority to
allow the Special Exception being requested - and recommended for approval by
the Commission’s own staff - until the Henrys’ lawyer, reading directly from
statutes and rules, pointed out they did.
So, what should the
Commissioners have done? Well, they should have approved their own staff’s
recommendation. Doing so would’ve placed reasonable constraints the Henrys’
activities but wouldn’t have ultimately and so arbitrarily after one year
banned Mr. Henry from being able to produce his award-winning art on his own
property.
Instead, the
Commissioners chose to focus on carrying out the rigid specifications of
ordinances and laws and ignored their duty to also consider what would be right
for the larger community. That is what Special Exceptions are all about. They
exist in recognition of the fact that no legal language will ever be able to
contemplate all possible situations that a law or ordinance might be intended
to address.
As a final point, when
the Henrys’ situation is seen in the light of a controversial project approved
by the Hernando Commission over the objections of dozens if not hundreds of
concerned residents a few years ago, the fact that a hand full of complaining
neighbors can so easily cause the County Commission to outright ban an
extraordinary man’s lifelong pursuit seems utterly outrageous.
Not too long ago, a
request was made to allow a 572-acre rock mine immediately west of the City of
Brooksville and adjacent to Cortez Boulevard, a major thoroughfare connecting
the city to the rapidly developing residential/commercial area of Spring Hill.
But, it was not possible at the time because at least four of the five-member
board was needed to approve changes to the county’s Master Plan which, at that
time, had the area designated for residential and commercial uses. Lacking the
four votes necessary, the mining proposal was withdrawn.
Subsequently, a
“friendlier” Commission revised the requirement for a four-member super
majority to be able to change the County’s Master Plan so only three would be
needed, a simple majority. This despite the vocal and written objections of
dozens of Hernando residents.
With only a simple
majority now required, the Commission accepted the mining plan and changed the
County’s Master Plan to rezone 730 acres, of which rock mining would be allowed
on 572. Thus, as a result of the Commission’s decision, a 572-acre rock mine is
now going to happen on property directly across the street from a regional
hospital despite a lawsuit and the organized objections of dozens of concerned
county residents.
Activities associated
with rock mining can include clouds of white lime-rock dust, explosions,
draglines digging massive holes acres wide, and 110-ton-capacity Euclid
vehicles rumbling around all hours of the day. In this case, it was also
alleged mining there would disrupt an existing colony of threatened gopher
tortoises and impact a nearby historic Brooksville cemetery.
So, while in that
instance the voices of perhaps hundreds of residents were unable to sway the
Commission, it apparently took only a few for the Hernando County Commission to
do what it did to the Henry's. It is simply and inescapably dumbfounding.
By the way, that cloud
of “sandblast” dust claimed to have wafted over the fence into the the Henry's
neighbors' yards? Turns out, I’m told, it was the Henrys having their white
fence pressure washed.
So, wrong was done at
that hearing. Hopefully, before the end of the designated year, a way will be
found to correct what is now happening to John and Pamela Henry and allow Mr.
Henry to continue his passion for creating trend-setting art for as long as he
might wish on the property they own in our Hernando County.
It’s
the right thing to do.