Not The Cadillac Ranch
Here's a posting I've been meaning to bring you for a while, but I've been a little preoccupied lately. On my way to Lakeland recently for the airshow, I finally remembered that I wanted to stop and take some pictures of a little roadside attraction called Airstream Ranch. And I just happened to stop in the middle of a press conference they were holding. So I just pretended that I belonged and walked out into the field where these 8 Airstream trailers are planted. Turns out that they were put there in January as a promotion for a camper salesman who's got a dealership at the next exit along the interstate. (That's interstate 4 near Dover, Florida, that you see running along behind the trailers.) Not long after the trailers were put in, the dealership was informed that the property under the trailers was not zoned for advertising. The dealership claimed it wasn't advertising, as there was no sign anywhere on the trailers or the property, and thus it was art. The county balked and gave a deadline to have the trailers out. That deadline happened to be a couple of days after I stopped by, and I haven't heard what happened. I guess I need to go look up the outcome. To me, it is art, much like the original Cadillac Ranch, or the sculpture in Sarasota called Dance.
Bates is still in violation as of today, September 9, 2009. He was turned down on his appeal with Code Enforcement and is now tying the court system up with his appeals. His attorney is Luke Lirot who has represented Joe Redner and his adult businesses. A simple solution: Bates should move his art display on his dealership property which is located a couple hundred feet to the East and is zoned Commercial. The property his display sits is zoned for single family residence and is located within a subdivision. Installing the display at his dealership would surely solve the disputes with the neighbors and the County but...maybe Bates likes controversy and likes to disgruntle the neighbors and County.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the note (but it's still 2008...). I knew everything was still in place as of last Sunday and I wondered what the status was. I don't see what the big deal is about. It's in the middle of a cow pasture abutting an interstate highway. No one in their right mind would want to live there. And it's difficult to find the little country road that you have to turn down to find the installation from the non-interstate side. But I suppose they have zoning laws for a reason. I'm sure the giant dinosaurs an exit or two away were properly zoned before they were erected.
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