St. Pete Beach city leaders will vote on Friday on which option to take in a long-standing legal dispute over development regulations.
The Second District Court of Appeals last week ruled a 2011 comprehensive plan should be nullified the city didn't provide adequate notice on the planned changes and because the former City Commission violated Florida's Sunshine Law by discussing public matters in private.
"The main thing that really generated this was that the city had started doing business in shade meetings," said attorney Ken Weiss, who represents the citizens who filed the lawsuit. "They held 7 shade meetings in 8 months, and all of those the court found were simply to develop a comprehensive plan strategy and then to re-adopt the plan without really telling the citizens what they were doing."
Weiss said the city is also on the hook for his legal fees. That amount will be determined by a judge at a later date, and it's expected to be in the six-figure range. The attorney said the comprehensive plan favored the large hotels on the beach.
"We’re not anti-development. It just had to be done the proper way so that everybody benefits," Weiss told the City Commission. "I’m sorry that we had to take this as far as we did, but as I’ve said all along, it’s a simple matter of following the law."
Weiss said he and his clients are willing to sit down with city leaders and come up with a new comprehensive plan. But first he wants evacuation and infrastructure studies done. The CEO and President of the TradeWinds Resort, Timothy Bogott, told the commission he favors talks, but doesn't believe more studies are needed.
"It would be inappropriate now to ask the city to come back and do their own studies," Bogott said. "I would very, very, very much be in favor of sitting down and talking, but we have to sit down and talk about things that are real."
Mayor Maria Lowe said she wants Weiss and his clients to be a part of the discussion so they can pass a 2014 comprehensive plan that isn't challenged. The city has already spent $2 million and 10 years on the redevelopment legal dispute.
"The hope is that we’ll get a plan that can actually go into place and that the city can function under so that redevelopment can begin," Lowe said. "The reason that we want he (Weiss) and his clients fully involved in the process for 2014 is so that we have a plan that is less likely to be challenged by he and his clients."
The Bryant Miller Olive law firm is representing the city in the legal dispute and recommended that the commission re-adopt a 2014 plan under the process laid out by the appellate court and file a motion for a rehearing on both the Sunshine Law and adoption issues. The deadline to file that motion is Oct. 30.
City attorney Andrew Dickman recommended the commission file a motion for clarification, instead of holding a re-hearing. The commission asked the law firm and the city attorney to get together and provide more information about their legal options.
"We have decided to reconvene on Friday at 5 o’clock in order to review the legal team's feedback and move forward from there," Lowe said.