VENICE -- It is the jewel of the city, Venice's south jetty, where the Gulf curls into the Intracoastal Waterway and visitors can park in the sand to drink in an orange sunset or spot a running dolphin.

In an act of municipal hospitality, the city built Anita's Sandcastle here, a restrooms-and-concession facility to cater to the essential needs of gawkers.

But in what some call an ugly display of federal hostility, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has countered with a stern demand:

Get off our property.

Now a city-federal land dispute has flared, reminiscent of two stubborn neighbors bickering over whose property the oak tree sits on.

The city wants Anita's to stay put. The Army Corps has floated a six-month deadline. Either move the hut elsewhere on the property, they say, or get rid of it altogether.

"They'll have to work out some kind of agreement," said Carl Zanner, weighing in on the matter from just outside Anita's Sandcastle as he clutched a hotdog. "Personally, I would tell them (the Corps of Engineers) to go to hell."

The Corps of Engineers, which carved out the Intracoastal Waterway in the late 1960s to form Venice island, says the city has encroached on a federal easement, which prohibits anyone but the Army Corps from building anything on the less than two acres of beachhead.

"Under those rights, the underlying owner cannot do much of anything but walk across that land," said Sharon Conklin, real estate chief at the Corps' Jacksonville District. "The main thing they can't do is build improvements."

Unless that is respected, the Corps says contractors would have no room to stage the construction equipment that will one day be brought in to maintain the jetty's rock walls.

But Venice is not budging. Instead, the city has unearthed faded deeds from Sarasota County dating back to the late 1970s that they contend grant rights to build what they want, where they want.

"We aren't encroaching on our own property because that's something you can't do," said city attorney Bob Anderson.

Anita Deans, the snack stand's namesake, owner and seven-day-a-week operator who ran the business when it was just a stand on wheels, said she expected as much help from her patrons as city officials.

"All I know is, I have a lot of loyal customers," said Deans, 35.

Customers agreed.

"This is the best thing that happened to this little area," said Jo-Ann Preville, as she sat eating lunch with her husband.

City officials have yet to back down.

They note that in navigating the labyrinth of permitting and public notice requirements that go with building anything within sight of a waterway, the Corps voiced nary a peep of objection.

The Corps' response? "We didn't know about it," Conklin said.

What the Corps does know, Conklin said, is that they met with city engineer Nancy Woodley in August to discuss the matter.

In November, Conklin fired off a letter to Woodley along with paperwork for signature.

The papers grant Venice six months to move Anita's Sandcastle and all underground utilities, at considerable city expense, or clear it out altogether.

Rather than sign, City Attorney Anderson responded with a polite refusal stapled to photocopies of the county deeds.

Conklin said the Corps noticed the problem last year, when a nearby portion of the jetty needed maintenance.

Although no plans exist to maintain the portion of waterway rock wall that lies just yards from the Sandcastle's grill, they will not drop the matter, arguing that maintenance will come due one day.

"We'll let you have it," said Conklin, "but just on a different part of that easement."

But on a cloudy Thursday that still brought a crowd to fill the picnic tables and line up at the counter, Anita voiced skepticism.

"Hello, look at this location!" Deans said. "Where else am I going to go?"

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