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Polk County seeks help from Legislature in curbing Rancho Bonito
A decade ago, Polk County commissioners frustrated over their inability to curb an unpermitted off-road vehicle park wondered whether the Florida Legislature could help.
Commissioners raised the idea of expanding state statutes and giving local governments the right to seize properties deemed to be public nuisances. That might be the only option for controlling Rancho Bonito, commissioners said at the time.
One of those commissioners, Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, is now a second-term state legislator. And the idea seems no closer to reality 10 years later.
Former County Commissioner John Hall revised the notion last year before losing a re-election bid. Hall conferred with County Attorney Michael Craig, who produced a draft for potential legislation that would amend state law covering abatement of nuisances.
KATHLEEN Craig and Linda Karppe live in what might be called the middle of nowhere.
The couple’s family property occupies 50 acres in an area that is closer to Colt Creek State Park than to a grocery store. Their home lies in extreme northwest Polk County, roughly halfway between Lakeland and Dade City and about five miles east of Zephyrhills.
To the east of their home is an undeveloped tract of 1,132 acres that appears on satellite photos as a verdant region near the headwaters of the Hillsborough River.
Idyllic? Not quite. Linda Karppe says there is no such thing as a quiet or tranquil day at her home of 34 years.