Duke sues to eject Starkey Market activities from power line property
Encouraging public recreation and entertainment next to high-voltage electric transmission lines is a bad idea, says Duke Energy in a lawsuit it has filed against the Starkey Market in New Port Richey and its affiliated companies and owners.
So is using Duke’s land for a blueberry nursery, piling up mulch and debris and storing farm equipment.
“This is all occurring around and underneath these high voltage power lines,” the suit states.
The utility is suing to get the market and it’s activities, which include cornhole games, football matches, picnics and concerts, as well as parking for the Starkey Market, to be moved off the utility’s land so that Duke can have unfettered access to the electrical equipment when needed.
A representative of the Starkey family that owns the market says it has long had access to the property and has done nothing wrong.
Those transmission lines are a prominent feature at the site, even appearing in the background of the market’s promotional photos on its website.
The lawsuit, filed in April, is against Starkey Market LLC, Trey LLC, SRI 2 LLC, J.B. Starkey III and Aaron Dekersen. It seeks to recover property that it owns and stop the defendants in the case from using the property.
“Defendants use of Duke Energy’s properties has and will continue to severely disrupt Duke Energy’s ability to maintain, operate and improve its transmission lines,” according to the legal complaint.
“Disruption could result in service interruption to approximately thousands of nearby homes, schools, businesses and potentially including medical providers.”
Beyond the property use concern, the suit also notes that use can pose a danger. Photos included in the lawsuit show cars parked just feet away from the power line supports.
The lines carry 500,000 volts of energy and Duke’s suit states that it is their responsibility to be sure safety precautions are taken around those lines so that “its employees and the public are kept safe.”
J.B. Starkey III, who goes by Trey Starkey, said that the family has an easement for use of the land and called the Duke lawsuit egregious. Trey Starkey is the husband of Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.
The complaint states that Duke Energy purchased the land in 1964 from J.B. Starkey and Blanche Starkey. The Starkeys “reserved only a right of ingress and egress” across those properties to themselves and their heirs, who are among those named as defendants in the lawsuit. The 300-foot-wide swath of land containing the transmission lines runs between property still owned by the Starkey family and the Starkey Ranch development.
The parties named own Starkey Market at 3460 Starkey Boulevard, which is adjacent to the Duke property and the Lake Blanche property, which has been part of the family farm, also adjacent to the Duke property.
The lawsuit states that around 2020, the defendants opened Starkey Market with produce for sale and a restaurant. And in the months that followed, they began to expand their attraction by placing picnic tables, tents, benches, fire pits and similar items on the Duke property adjacent to the market. Visitors were encouraged to use those amenities and also park on the Duke property, according to the lawsuit.
South of the market in another portion of the power line right of way, adjacent to the Starkey Blueberry Farm property at 10730 Lake Blanche Drive, the lawsuit states that land owned by Duke has become a blueberry plant nursery, and is used for stockpiling mulch and parking farm equipment. Tree cutting debris is also on the site as are large containers full of liquid fish fertilizer, a box truck and trailers, railroad ties and stacked logs, stacked pallets, pipes and demolition debris.
The complaint says the land belonged to Duke to use for transmission lines and all of the care and maintenance of that network and having the public there was incompatible and “it also presents a public safety issue.”
The suit says that Duke believes that some people have reported “electrical shocks” under those power lines, basically static electricity from the electromagnetic field that can be found under high voltage power lines.
In February 2022, Duke sent the Starkey Market a “cease and desist” letter telling the owners to stop the activities and use of its property but that did not happen, according to the lawsuit.
Starkey said he was standing solid on the access issue on the Duke property.
“We’re going to use it as we have for over 60 years,” he said. “We will defend our easement.”
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