Resident who tore down a Snead Island community dock applies to have it rebuilt

PALMETTO -- A Snead Island resident, who in March illegally demolished a community dock, has applied for a permit to rebuild the dock.

The action may resolve years of an ongoing dispute between residents of the Andress subdivision and Manatee County, at least from the county's standpoint.

The county determined resident Gregory Patterson tore down a legal structure after the county denied a demolition permit.

Patterson, whose own dock was adjacent to the community dock, filed to rebuild the dock Thursday.

Neighbors in the subdivision near 15th Street West and 53rd Avenue West, said they would file for a permit to rebuild the dock in May, but Patterson beat them to it. However, he did so only after trying to get the county to stop his neighbors.

Attorney Deborah Getzoff wrote to county planning director John Barnott on Thursday on behalf of the Pattersons.

"My clients are not in agreement that any purported easement holders may perform construction activities on my clients' property. ... There has been no provision for and has been no agreement among the various listed easement holders as to what type of structure, if any, should be considered," she wrote.

Patterson filed for a permit the same day but had already set his plans in motion, according to a proposal dated Wednesday from Custom Dock & Davit Inc. of Sarasota, which outlines the scope of work.

Patterson did not return a call for comment.

Each neighbor was granted a 50-foot-wide access to the Manatee River with rights to construct and maintain a community dock in the original 1972 easement grant. Barnott disagrees any one neighbor can call the parcel their own. He said each resident granted a legal easement can rebuild the dock

to the same size it has been recorded in historic photographs of the area.

Barnott has received emails on both sides of the dispute asking the county not to issue the other a permit, but he said the county can only act according to what is legal and each neighbor has a legal right. He said Patterson applied first and his permit would be considered first, which doesn't stop other neighbors from filing for permits later.

"This is the same predicament we were in from the very beginning," said Barnott. "They were all told the same thing, but they didn't like the answers. They can build it as big as can be determined as it was in the past."

Patterson's initial application has plans for a straight dock, but Barnott said historic photographs show a T-shaped deck at the end. He said Patterson will likely be allowed to build the dock he applied for, but Barnott said he also would grant a permit to any other neighbor who wanted to add the cap noted in the photographs.

"We have no problems making it the size it was before," he said. "Anyone who puts a dock on that parcel; it doesn't belong to them. The easement clearly states it belongs to all of them."

Robin Schofield, who along with other neighbors, has been at the forefront of trying to enforce what they believe is legally theirs. She is now asking the county to delay Patterson's request and is "diligently working with others in the neighborhood to try to come up with a plan that will work for everyone, or at least the majority of people," she said.

Barnott said most of the neighborhood dispute is a civil matter but from the county's standpoint, the dock can be replaced. Who does it, he said, doesn't matter.

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Resident who tore down a Snead Island community dock applies to have it rebuilt ."