The old adage “good fences make good neighbors” may be true most of the time, but for one Gulf Breeze businessman a fence he built on his own property has caused an uproar.
Christopher Green has owned the shopping center adjacent to Harbourtown commercial center in Gulf Breeze for 31 years. About a week ago the 84-year-old developer hired a crew to put up a fence along his property line between the two shopping centers.
Construction got as far as the framing and a few wooden slats before he said the city of Gulf Breeze told him to stop.
“I was building what was going to be a board fence here until the city stopped me,” Green said. “They sent code enforcement out, who call it a discrepancy in the (building permit) application.”
The News Journal left messages for comment for the Gulf Breeze City Administrator and the reception desk at City Hall, but no one was available to speak on the issue at the time.
Green believes the “discrepancy” is that people are upset the fence has blocked a longtime cut-through they use to get to Harbourtown from McAbee Court, which runs behind and through both properties.
Some drivers also cut through the shopping centers to get to Pensacola Beach the “back way,” and avoid traffic on busy Gulf Breeze Parkway.
There are other access points for both shopping centers, but the fence has effectively put a stop to what people have been accustomed to doing for more than 30 years and many are not happy about it.
“I think it’s horrible because I live right down Shoreline Drive, and I go to Uru Yoga and right now I’m headed to Tacos Rock,” Susan Butler said as she crouched down to step through the unfinished fence. “It’s very disappointing, and I’m going to climb through the fence.”
She wasn’t the only one.
In the 45 minutes the News Journal spent with Green in the parking lot discussing the fence, a steady stream of drivers turned in and either turned around at the sight of the partially built fence or parked on Green’s property and climbed through it to get to businesses at Harbourtown, despite multiple “No Trespassing” signs.
“People are crawling under and over the fence. That’s not right,” Green said, concerned someone will get hurt, especially when he saw children following in their parents’ footsteps or being carried across. “Look at this. Crossing it with children. Y’all believe that? It’s just common sense; you don’t do that.”
The backlash over the fence has been significant in person and online.
Green said when people aren’t climbing over his fence or ignoring the “No Trespassing” signs, some are responding with insults and complaints – all for simply asserting his property rights after decades of unauthorized public use and misplaced entitlement, he said.
Even before the fence went up he said drivers have cursed at him when he was on his own property repairing potholes, because he was in the way.
“Why do people need to come over to my property is what my question is,” Green said. “They’re parking on my property, and legally I have the right to tow people, any of these people parked in here right now. Guess what? I can call that number and they can be towed, and I haven’t done it. I refrained from that for 31 years, but I have the right to protect my property rights.”
Why build the fence now?
Green said he wanted to install a fence for years but didn’t because of an old license agreement that allowed patrons of Harbourtown’s 44 shops and businesses to park on his property – an agreement that was made when both shopping centers were first developed.
He said that license recently expired and his attorney notified the attorney for Harbourtown’s board, who subsequently sent out a memo to unit and business owners that the parking license had expired.
Harbourtown has more parking at the other end of its professional center, but for those who want to visit Tacos Rock and other businesses closer to Green’s property, his parking lot is more convenient.
Green says it’s not just Harbourtown patrons that use his parking lot, it’s service and delivery vehicles for their businesses too who often use and park on his property, blocking driveways.
He said he alone has borne the expense of maintaining the property for 31 years, including patching potholes, without contribution from the city or the adjacent property owners, an expense that has cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He wants to cut down on the expense and liability and protect the parking for people who patronize his tenants’ businesses.
“People are parking all over the place, taking up spaces from my people who pay me rent,” Green said. “Ninety percent of my family’s income is based here and has been for 31 years, so I’m protective of this, right? Look at the expense that has come out of the pockets of my family for 31 years of maintenance – the city, Harbourtown, Bahama Bay Condos, they’ve never spent one penny and never reimbursed me for any of the expenses I’ve had for all this period of time.”
George Hebert and his wife have been tenants of Green’s for 13 years. George said parking and traffic on the property is often “crazy,” and he welcomes the change.
“I always was concerned about the way the parking was set up and trucks and big vans and cars all zipping around and all that,” Hebert said. “It didn’t make any sense. I think the fence is logical. This reaction, it’s all about people getting 30 years of convenience, wouldn’t you say?”
Green said he understands that most people probably didn’t realize his shopping center is separate from Harbourtown and the change comes as a surprise, but he said it’s long overdue.
Now he just wants to finish building his fence before someone gets hurt.
“Time will lessen all this,” he said. “What happens over time? It all slowly fades away.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gulf Breeze fired up over new fence cutting off popular shortcut
Reporting by Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
