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Uncompromising Environmentalist Not Afraid To Take On City Hall By GEOFF FOX | The Tampa Tribune Published: May 4, 2003 LAND O' LAKES - Radical. Hard-headed. Controversial. Clay Colson acknowledges he is all those things — and that he's been called worse. But radical as he is, he doesn't care what people call him. Hard-headed as a statue, he isn't about to change, anyway. Controversial for Pasco County, the 48-year-old founding member and former board chairman of Citizens For Sanity hopes his sometimes prickly personality can draw attention to the causes he holds dear. If you've been to a local meeting where environmental preservation, wildlife protection, economic development, the county school system or the Heart of Land O' Lakes vision plan have been discussed, you've likely seen Colson. He's 6 feet tall, weighs 250 pounds and has long, dark hair. A casual dresser, Colson looks more like a bouncer at a biker bar than an articulate activist. Although membership and participation in Citizens For Sanity has dwindled recently, he is involved with other groups: Floridians for Environmental Accountability and Reform, Save Our Naturecoast, and Naturecoast Sierra Club. "I'm referred to as an environmental activist, which is fine," Colson says, "except people coin as someone whose focus is on trees and wildlife and animals and habitat.
"But as an environmental activist, I must also be a community activist. Because all of those things relate to the health, welfare and safety of everyone. The environment is where we live — not just wildlife, open lands and water-recharge areas."
No Room For Compromise
Community activist.
Sounds noble enough, but if there is one adjective that describes Colson better than any other it might be "uncompromising."
"The word compromise is not something he likes," says his mother, Pat Colson. "That pretty well sums it up."
He is so uncompromising that discussions about politics, religion and the environment are banned at Colson family gatherings.
Even football is touchy.
"The environmental community and the environment of Florida has no room left to compromise," Colson says. "There are too many people here already. Realtors, developers and builders run this county, and they have for some time."
A contract laborer and former mechanic, Colson hounds county officials with an intensity Devil Rays coach Lou Piniella could appreciate. Combine the personality with the appearance and you have a man unfamiliar with sympathetic audiences.
"Sometimes, the passion he brings, people don't know what to do with it," says fellow activist Octavio Blanco, a local veterinarian. "He loves the land and trees and animals so much, and he'll get angry.
They don't like that. They want you to be respectful and have a monotone."
With Citizens For Sanity, Colson fought developers in court over the Oakstead development on State Road 54, a 1,200-home subdivision about 1,300 feet from his front door. In 2000, Citizens dropped its lawsuit after Oakstead's developer agreed to build wildlife corridors to protect animal habitat.
County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, who supported Oakstead and endured a visit from Colson regarding the issue, says he never could be categorized as "a shy gentleman."
"He's very intense with the feelings he has," she says. "I'll give him credit. He articulates and does his homework about his cause. He brings a lot of issues to the table."
Also a former activist, County Commissioner Pat Mulieri says she doesn't always agree with Colson's stance on issues or with the way he presents his beliefs.
"I address issues, I don't attack, and he sometimes attacks," Mulieri says. "But what I admire is he educates himself about our land codes and our comprehensive plan. There's a lot to learn, and he did it.
"We need people in our county and state who speak out for what they believe in. You can make a change."
Just A Good Old Boy
Lesley Blackner is a Palm Beach attorney who met Colson in 1999, when she represented the Sierra Club in litigation opposing the Suncoast Parkway.
She currently represents Colson in a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over what he considers abuse of the agency's nationwide permit program, which pertains to the dredging and filling of wetlands.
Blackner describes Colson as an "unusual person" who "isn't for the faint of heart."
"He looks like a good old boy," Blackner says. "But good old boys usually aren't as articulate and intellectual as he is. They might be upset about what's going on but can't articulate it.
"No one was really challenging anything in Pasco until Clay came along. No one was saying, "Hey, maybe we don't want to be like Hillsborough County.' "
With Citizens for Sanity and FEAR, Colson continues to fight Pasco officials over the Ridge Road extension. The groups and Colson feel the road doesn't maintain the natural state of the Serenova preserve.
He seemingly delights in infuriating county officials. For example, Colson once attended a county-sponsored "Government 101" class, which teaches residents how county government works, and passed out copies of newspaper editorials critical of Pasco's development policies, along with other documents and videos.
"They got mad and tried to make me leave," Colson says.
Preaching the virtues of "sustainable growth," he publicly decries the proliferation of residential developments along the Suncoast Parkway at state roads 54 and 52, and along Interstate 75 at State Road 56.
He challenges Southwest Florida Water Management District officials over water issues.
He bickers over the county's planning processes.
He challenges many people on many topics.
And he no sooner will compromise on any of them than he will alter his chest-thumping approach — even if people like Blackner don't think he gets "full deference" because of it.
"I think it's needed," Colson says. "That extremity is something that's warranted to get people's attention, and I believe we have gotten the county's attention.
"When people say things have changed so much, and I've only seen a little bit of change, it's because of what Citizens did. We turned the county on its ear by suing them."
Perhaps it is Colson's reputation that recently earned him a brief environmental discussion with U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., at a Tampa luncheon.
Always Opinionated
By Colson's estimation, he has been an activist since about 1997, when he tried to form a union at a company called General Screen Printing; Citizens For Sanity was formed in 1999.
But the traits that led to his interest in activism were seen early.
A Tampa native, he is the second oldest of David and Pat Colson's seven children; David died in 2002.
Colson attended Christ the King Catholic School and Tampa Catholic High School, where he was a starting lineman on a two-time conference-winning football team and wrestled at 167 pounds.
Pat Colson says Clay always was opinionated and that he sometimes got into trouble in school for arguing with teachers.
"He has a complex personality in that he is very loving to his family, but if he believes in something he wants to argue about it, but I won't," she says. "He's a very nice, honest person who believes what he believes and will work hard for it."
Pat hopes Clay isn't working too hard. At 42, he underwent triple bypass surgery, which he calls "one of the most overdone procedures in America today."
To relax, Colson walks his five dogs and tends to his two horses, three chickens, one rooster and 12 cats.
He watches "sustainable growth" videos with titles like "Six Fairy Tales About Growth" (featuring a brief interview with Colson), "A Tale of Two Counties" and "No Room To Move."
He reads books like "Better Not Bigger" by Evan Foder. He practices a "variation" of tai chi and observes the Wicca religion.
He is a contract laborer at Kaleidoscope Glass in Land O' Lakes, the Elder Hostel and Pines Conference Center in Brooksville, and Blue Heron Studios in Tampa.
From 1979 to 1994, he was a mechanic.
Don't get him started on the alleged evils of that trade.
"I've always had concerns with the way the world was going and the way people act and how misguided it was," Colson says. "I actually went to a psychiatrist or psychologist once, and I talked to him about why I was depressed.
"I talked to him about world problems, what we call progress, but which I didn't see as progress. He told me not to read the paper or the TV news and to just go out and have a good time.
"That's the last I ever saw him."
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