Little Joe says developing land one big headache
The property I’m talking about is located by the traffic light at the intersection of S. Chancery Street and Morrison Road. It’s a good-sized chunk of land, 25 acres in all.
Little Joe Shelton and his family own the property and Little Joe didn’t shy away from talking about his plans.
“We’d like to develop it, no ifs, ands or buts,” said Little Joe. “It’s a prime piece of property and we’ve had some pretty good interest. But it’s a disgrace how hard it is to develop something around here. If things continue like this, it’s not worth the headache.”
The Shelton family is no stranger to developing property – and encountering problems along the way. I don’t want to bring up bad memories, but Big Joe ran into some significant legal issues on the way to developing Three Star Mall.
“This town is anti-progress and it always has been,” said Little Joe. “My dad had trouble developing the mall and then he had trouble developing Northgate Shopping Center because people didn’t want it. And now there’s this. This county is definitely down and I would think people would want to change that.”
Little Joe said his latest problems occurred Thursday night when he had crews clearing off the 25 acres and burning debris. Someone apparently called city officials about the burning which prompted the fire department to come by and extinguish the brush fires.
“They can let brush burn at Eckerd’s for three days straight, but I can’t burn on my property,” said Little Joe. “What really upsets me is they pick and choose who around town has to comply.”
Little Joe says he would like to clean up the land and bring in some commercial business to energize the local economy. But he also said he’s tired of getting a hard time for a little dozer work.
“I’d think people would be for this,” said Little Joe. “If I clean it up, it will improve everybody’s property value around there.”