Copyright Times Publishing Co. Apr 29, 2004

Even with the brown slippers by the bed and the pill bottle on the nightstand, it's hard to see this strip mall as a home.

The neighbors include a title company, a beauty shop and the JMJ Oriental Food Mart. Traffic whizzes by 100 feet away on U.S. 19.

For this, Rodger and Renee McPheeters left their $345,000 waterfront home on Kings Bay.

The strip mall is part of 500 acres the city of Crystal River annexed this week, a first step in ushering in a new Wal-Mart Supercenter. City leaders hoped to annex the land without a vote.

But the McPheeterses own the strip mall and oppose the annexation. By moving in, the couple hopes eventually to force the city to hold a referendum of voters in the annexation area.

The McPheeterses would be the only two voters.

"Every place I go, people are for us," said Renee McPheeters, 49.

Despite Wal-Mart's ad campaign depicting its love affair with small towns, communities nationwide have tried - in some cases successfully - to keep the big-box corporation out of their neighborhood. They have organized town hall meetings, collected petitions and forced the issue to a referendum.

Yet as grassroots roadblocks go, the McPheeterses' strategy may be one for the record books.

The matter of a small office becoming a studio apartment is far from settled.

On Monday, the Crystal River City Council approved the annexation plan by a 4-1 vote after the city attorney said the couple's new home was illegal.

Annexation opponents are planning to challenge the decision in court, saying the city must recognize registered voters in the area, in this case the McPheeterses.

The new home is just the latest twist in a months long saga.

It began when RealtiCorp, a South Carolina developer, approached Citrus County about building a Wal-Mart Supercenter. But the two couldn't agree on wetlands protection near the proposed site.

So, RealtiCorp turned to the city.

The developer, which owns about 200 acres south of Crystal River, asked the city to annex its property.

To accomplish that, city officials linked together a mile long stretch of properties, weaving back and forth across U.S. 19 and skirting around residences and the Crystal River Airport.

But they also included numerous small businesses whose owners wanted nothing to do with the plan.

The business owners united, claiming the city had illegally drawn the map to fit its goal - clearing the way for the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

They hired a lawyer. They protested the involuntary nature of the annexation.

Citrus County government got involved. At Monday's public hearing, eight county employees pointed out what they deemed as flaws with the city's approach.

But none of the protests have caused as much of a stir as the McPheeterses' new home.

Rodger McPheeters, 73, announced at the April 12 council meeting that he and his wife had moved into the strip mall as live-in managers.

After getting a certificate of occupancy from the county, they dragged in a queen-size bed, two wooden night stands and some lawn chairs, barely filling the 2,000-square-foot room.

The city suspected the couple had a motive for the relocation: impeding the annexation plan. So, on six consecutive days or evenings it sent a Crystal River police officer to investigate whether the McPheeterses were sleeping in their new home. In his log, the officer said he never saw them at the strip mall. He took pictures.

But he frequently saw lights on and cars in the driveway at the couple's waterfront home.

The city isn't stopping there.

At Monday's meeting, City Attorney David LaCroix said that, as an officer of the court, he will report the McPheeterses for changing their voter registration before they got county approval to move in.

LaCroix told the council that if necessary it could cut the strip mall out of the plan. But critics say the parcel is crucial - without it, the map won't pass legal muster.

Council members seemed unimpressed by the relocation.

"I don't know why anybody would have done that," council member John Kendall said. "It sounded like a very desperate attempt to be obstructionists."

Dr. Tom Dawson, an optometrist who led the business owners' fight against annexation, is of a different mind.

He thinks the city will have a tough time legally refuting the McPheeterses' residency.

"Heck, what's wrong with it? People live in worse places than that," he said.

The McPheeterses insist they sleep at the strip mall, though they don't arrive until after midnight most nights because Rodger works late at his restaurant in Marion County and Renee keeps her mother company at their waterfront home.

Both say their move is permanent, one they had been considering for several years, and not a clandestine effort to gum up annexation or ward off Wal-Mart.

"We feel like we're defending our fort," said Renee McPheeters.

They point out the expensive marble tile they've installed in their new shower and the blueprint of their plans to refurbish the office as a three-bedroom home.

Right now, their mini-refrigerator and microwave are only steps away from their makeshift closet. And they don't have any windows.

Said Rodger McPheeters:"It's all we need, really."