A tree falls in Largo. A lawsuit takes root.
After warning the city about an ailing tree in 2023, a homeowner is seeking up to $250,000 in damages. But whose tree was it?
Carlos Moncada
A versatile journalist with more than 20 years in the field, specializing in government and politics as well as breaking news, features and profiles and investigative stories.
My Latest Work
City to residents: Keep outdoor lights off neighbors
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH — How many lighting ordinances does a municipality need?If you're Indian Rocks Beach, it may soon be three.The city already regulates lighting along its Gulf beaches to protect nesting sea turtles and has separate rules for dock lighting. Now commissioners are considering a third set of regulations aimed at keeping homeowners' outdoor lights from shining into neighboring properties and across waterways.The proposal is a response to concerns from residents about excessive light...
Indian Shores approves ordinance protecting public beach use
NDIAN SHORES — Beachgoers here now have a local ordinance recognizing their right to enjoy privately owned stretches of sand without needing permission from beachfront property owners.
The Town Council voted 5-0 Oct. 13 to approve a customary-use ordinance recognizing the public's right to walk, sunbathe, fish and engage in other recreational activities on privately owned portions of the beach.
The Town Council voted 5-0 Oct. 13 to approve a customary-use ordinance recognizing the public's right to walk, sunbathe, fish and engage in other recreational activities on privately owned portions of the beach.
After decades of discord, signs of a thaw
“Ninety-nine percent of Belleair Beach residents that I talk to — I know many of them by name — we don't have issues,” he said. “A lot of this fighting you see in the city council meetings is not fighting that you see out in everyday public. People are waving and nice and, you know, they see us out with my children and they're very nice.
“Ninety-nine percent of Belleair Beach residents that I talk to — I know many of them by name — we don't have issues,” he said. “A lot of this fighting you see...
“Ninety-nine percent of Belleair Beach residents that I talk to — I know many of them by name — we don't have issues,” he said. “A lot of this fighting you see...
A year later, Belleair Shore again extends an olive branch to Belleair Beach
BELLEAIR BEACH — Belleair Shore Vice Mayor Daniel Storie came before the City Council Oct. 5 with an olive branch and a familiar message: The two long-quarreling communities need to start working together again.The refrain was much the same as one he delivered almost exactly a year ago.And, like then, the disputes remain.The neighboring communities have been at odds on and off for more than 30 years over locked gates controlling Belleair Beach residents’ access to the beach through lots in Belle...
Treasure Island moves closer to protections for Elnor Island
TREASURE ISLAND — City commissioners have moved closer to permanent protections for Elnor Island, but want to ensure nonmotorized vessels can continue using a mangrove tunnel that runs through it.Commissioners reached a consensus during an Oct. 6 workshop to have the city conduct a title review and prepare a deed restriction that would block future development on the 15-acre city-owned islet, just east of John's Pass in Boca Ciega Bay.“I think the consensus would be to go forward with this,” May...
Bamboo can stay, magistrate rules
BELLEAIR BLUFFS — The Great Bamboo Battle is over.Or is it?On Oct. 2, a special magistrate ruled against the city’s code enforcement case involving former Clearwater mayor Frank Hibbard, finding that the towering bamboo separating his waterfront home from a neighboring condominium complex did not meet the legal definition of a “nuisance.”The ruling by Special Magistrate Bart Valdes ends — at least for now — a case that threatened Hibbard and his wife, Teresa, with fines of up to $250 a day and c...
Seminole removes Amendment 3 opposition links after lawmaker's warning
SEMINOLE — The city has removed links to organizations opposing Amendment 3 and critical news coverage from a taxpayer-funded webpage after a state lawmaker questioned whether the material violated Florida election law.The changes came after state Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, sent Mayor Leslie Waters a letter last week accusing the city of using its official website to promote a vote against the property-tax amendment and demanding that the material be removed.Jacques warned that he was prepa...
Anatomy of a feud
BELLEAIR SHORE — The iron gates here went up suddenly and without warning, blindsiding neighboring Belleair Beach, whose residents were now locked out of the beach after sunset. Thirty years after that well-publicized confrontation between these bickering beach burgs — which share part of a name and a shoreline but not much else — they're still at it.The gates, initially derided by some as foreboding and downright ugly, have outlasted a succession of elected officials in both communities. So has...
Backroom Talk
“I don't want to be trailed all over town,” Waters said at the City Council's Sept. 9 meeting, where council members asked staff to find out how many surveillance cameras are in Seminole, where they are and who controls the information they collect.The cameras Waters was talking about are deployed by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. She called the technology an infringement on people simply going about their business, while City Manager Ann Toney-Deal suggested appropriate “guardrails” coul...
Seminole chamber loses city grant after years of declining funding
SEMINOLE — For the first time in recent years, the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce won’t receive grant money from the city next year.The chamber’s request for $15,000 was excluded from City Manager Ann Toney-Deal’s recommended $36.7 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which the City Council unanimously approved Sept. 23. The grant’s elimination follows three years of declining chamber funding from the city, from $20,000 in 2024 to $10,000 in 2025 to $7,500 this year.And Mayor L...
Largo commissioners urged to end ICE agreement
LARGO — More than a year after approving a federal immigration-enforcement agreement, city commissioners may revisit their decision following renewed public calls to withdraw.Eight speakers at the commission’s Sept. 15 meeting urged officials to end or oppose the Police Department’s agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the so-called 287(g) program.They raised concerns about family separations and the potential erosion of trust between immigrant communities and local poli...
Belleair Shore renews beach boundary fight
BELLEAIR SHORE — Firing another legal salvo in its controversial effort to remove a beachfront property boundary, the town now argues that the state has canceled portions of erosion control lines elsewhere in Florida and can do so again in this instance.Belleair Shore filed an amended petition Sept. 14 after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection dismissed its original challenge Aug. 31 but gave it 15 days to correct deficiencies in the filing.Town officials want to remove the portio...
Redington Shores to reel in shark-fishing ban
REDINGTON SHORES — This town is the latest to reel in its shark-fishing ban, following similar actions by two other Pinellas County beach communities.Town commissioners agreed Sept. 9 to revise the ordinance so its restrictions apply only to town-owned property, under an exception in state law, rather than repeal it entirely.Indian Shores became the first Pinellas County beach community to ban shore-based shark fishing after a dead, pregnant tiger shark washed ashore in 2023. Redington Shores fo...
A troubled road: Oldsmar project still waiting for construction after nearly a decade
The planning money, if awarded, would become available in July 2027 without a required local match. The city would then have to secure a separate construction grant, with up to $3 million in federal funding potentially available in 2032. The project has an estimated construction cost of $3.875 million, leaving Oldsmar responsible for at least $875,000 if it receives the full grant and the estimate holds.
The planning money, if awarded, would become available in July 2027 without a required loca...
The planning money, if awarded, would become available in July 2027 without a required loca...
Vacation rental owner sues fire district over higher assessment
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH — A vacation rental owner is suing the Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District over its decision to start charging short-term rentals at its commercial fire assessment rate.Belleair Beach homeowner Vadim S. Carter says the change increased his annual assessment from $360 to $1,066 — a 196% increase.His lawsuit, filed Aug. 31 in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, argues that the district lacked authority to make the change without voter approval and did not have sufficient analysis...
‘That was our comfort zone’
SAFETY HARBOR — To some longtime residents, the low-slung, faded turquoise-and-white building at Elm and Spruce streets is more than an old restaurant waiting to be torn down. It is a reminder of a time when blacks had few places in Safety Harbor where they could gather, eat and socialize.“At the time, that was the only outing we had,” Barbara Bronson, a lifelong resident who lives on Elm Street, told the city's Planning and Zoning Board last month. “It provided meals. It had a little entertainm...
‘Scare tactics’ or ‘reality tactics’? Largo debates Amendment 3
LARGO — It was billed as a town hall to help residents understand what Amendment 3 could mean for their property taxes and city services.It didn't stay that way for long.State Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, accused Largo officials at the Sept. 9 panel discussion at Horizon West Bay of using taxpayer money to campaign against the measure and trying to scare voters with warnings about cuts to police and fire services.At the center of the dispute was a number: $15.7 million.That's how much Largo e...
‘Are we trying to be an HOA?’ Belleair Beach zoning rewrite draws fire
BELLEAIR BEACH — A sweeping rewrite of the city’s zoning rules advanced Sept. 9, but not before residents questioned whether Belleair Beach was starting to look more like a homeowners association.The 69-page ordinance covers a wide range of issues, including bamboo, landscaping rocks, hedges, pools, ham-radio antennas, home businesses and multifamily development.It passed on first reading 4-2 and will come back next month for a final vote. But after getting an earful, council members said severa...
Gotham gets the edge for Largo’s former City Hall site
LARGO — City officials are moving toward negotiations with the preferred developer for the former City Hall property, but commissioners want fewer residential units than the 367 proposed.Several commissioners said at a Sept. 8 workshop they want Gotham Property Acquisitions LLC to reduce the density of its plan for the 14-acre site at 201 Highland Ave., with some raising concerns about its affordable housing component, parking and potential flooding.Still, Commissioner John Lauser said New York-...
Luxury-home ambitions meet everyday code problems in Redington Beach
REDINGTON BEACH — Jason Matthews has big plans for this little beach town: as many as 36 luxury homes, part of a broader effort to amass a 100-unit short-term rental portfolio across the Tampa Bay area.But as the Tampa real estate investor and developer looks to expand, dozens of properties owned by companies he manages have repeatedly landed before Redington Beach's code enforcement magistrate.In July alone, 23 properties tied to Matthews, who is also a licensed real estate sales associate, app...
Former Clearwater mayor battles Belleair Bluffs over 'nuisance' bamboo
BELLEAIR BLUFFS — He became known more for quitting in the middle of a city council meeting than for the decade he served as Clearwater’s mayor.More than three years after his sudden resignation made national news, Frank Hibbard was back inside a municipal chamber Sept. 1, arguing that a code enforcement case against him and his wife should be tossed.The issue: bamboo.Lots of it.The towering stand forms a privacy screen between the Hibbards’ waterfront home, at 160 Bluff View Dr., and the Harbou...
Redington Beach moves to scale back shark-fishing ban
REDINGTON BEACH — Another Pinellas beach town is backing away from restrictions on shore-based shark fishing after confronting the same legal issue that prompted Indian Shores to repeal its ban.Redington Beach commissioners gave initial approval Aug. 24 to an ordinance that would allow state-permitted shark fishing from private property while continuing to prohibit it from property owned by the town. A second and final reading is scheduled for Sept. 9.It's a notable step back from the ordinance...
Amendment 3 gets unusual spot in Pinellas tax notices
Twitty's office says it isn't trying to tell anyone how to vote. “We're not allowed to advocate for or against,” Twitty said during a “public education” session in St. Petersburg this week. “We're going to present everything in a very fact-based manner and then try to peel back the layers of the onion on the amendment so that you can understand all the moving parts and make your own educated decision when you go and vote in November,” he said.Twitty devoted roughly 15 minutes to the ballot measu...
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Last Grand Hotel To Be Razed?
Preservationists and elected leaders are troubled by the idea of losing what has been called the world's largest occupied wooden structure.
Hotel to be razed? (jump)
Possible razing of Biltmore sparks outcry in community
Many in the Tampa Bay area are sentimental about the architecturally inspiring, 107-year-old landmark whose days may be numbered.
Biltmore resort (jump)
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Lost In Transition
One by one, the mom-and-pop motels with neon signs and plastic flamingos, vintage beach cottages and small seaside shops that for decades beckoned budget-minded families and tourists to Pinellas County beaches are closing their doors.
Lost in transition (jump 1)
Lost in transition (jump 2)
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