When Donna Hartl and her husband purchased a vacant lot in Brooksville, Florida, they thought they’d found the perfect location for their dream home. Nestled between Islewood Drive and Richbarn Road, the $17,500 property seemed ideal.
“We really wanted to have some privacy, not be stranded out in the country,” Donna Hartl told News Channel 8 reporters. “We just felt this was the perfect match.”
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But as they prepared to build, the couple encountered an obstacle: a decades-old Duke Energy easement that prohibits construction on their new lot due to restrictions on how close homes can be built to a new transmission pole. Now, they’re
The Hartls say they did their due diligence. They worked with Hernando County officials and hired a builder to draft plans for their home. County records confirmed the property was zoned for residential or agricultural use.
“I was getting the green light on everything,” Hartl told reporters. “My property was being brought up on the GIS map at the county, I got my setback, what I could and couldn’t do. I could bring a modular home in, a mobile home, or I could do a single-family residence.”
But their plans came to a screeching halt when a neighbor informed them Duke Energy had an easement on the property. At first, county workers insisted she could still build. However, further research uncovered a 1955 document in public records that created a utility easement prohibiting construction within 100 feet of the pole in any direction.
The result? Nearly the entire property is unusable for building, leaving just a small 600-square-foot corner that can’t accommodate even a modest home due to septic and well requirements. When Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken asked Duke if it would be willing to purchase the property since they are the only company able to use it, they sent a statement, which said, in part:
“These easements and their setbacks are in place to ensure the safety of our customers and our crews, while also protecting any current or future equipment contained within these areas to deliver safe, reliable power. It’s important to understand, Duke Energy Florida is not involved in the sale of real estate transactions that may include our easements.”
