Citrus County Administrator Anthony Schembri said Thursday that because of questions about an agricultural exemption from permitting and impact fees regarding a barn owned by a state senator from Inverness, he will be asking for an opinion from state officials.

The county staff had responded to a complaint about a barn on property owned by Sen. Charles Dean, R-Inverness.

The case was looked into by county code inspectors and the barn, which was on land designated for agricultural use, was deemed to fall under an exemption in state law for permits for non-residential agricultural buildings. In addition to storage space for agriculture uses, the barn reportedly has two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, but the inspector had no evidence the structure was being used as anyone’s residence.

Dean subsequently told the Citrus County Chronicle he sometimes allows visitors to stay there, and the question of whether it was a residential dwelling on that basis was raised. The staff had ruled that because it had no evidence that any rooms in the structure were being used as someone’s residence, the barn fell under the exemption.

What specifically constitutes a "residential dwelling" is not specifically defined in the statute.

Because the complaint was deemed unfounded, the case had ended there and the inspector had no need to notify Dean.

Jim Huff of Hernando, however, who spoke at the March 10 county commission meeting, protested the staff's findings to commissioners. "It's got a kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. There's no way it's a barn," Huff argued.

Schembri said of the action he was taking, “In response to the questions being raised about the agricultural exemptions on Sen. Charles Dean’s barn, given the issues that have come up, I am taking what I consider an appellate step, and I am asking the Secretary of the Department of Community Affairs, Tom Pelham, to give us an opinion on the case.”

County officials will forward details of the case to Pelham for review but do not expect an immediate response.

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