Holmes Beach building official Jim McGuinness and the city are being asked to explain why a fourth bathroom can’t be added to a residence under construction in Holmes Beach.
In a Sept. 10 order, 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Gilbert A. Smith Jr. ruled a request from 306 Clark LLC was “sufficient” and turned to the city to defend its July 27 refusal to issue a revised building permit.
The principal of 306 Clark LLC is builder/developer Shawn Kaleta.
The request — a writ of mandamus — seeks to enforce a legal right by compelling a government official to perform a ministerial task.
Kaleta’s LLC anticipates the court will grant the remedy and order McGuinness to issue the revised building permit.
Sean Kelly of the Bradenton law firm of Najmy Thompson, representing the Kaleta, filed a two-count complaint Aug. 6, which sought the writ and injunctive and declaratory relief.
According to the complaint, McGuinness refused to revise the permit because the fourth bathroom “could readily be transformed into a fourth bedroom suite for each duplex side, which would have been prohibited by the building moratorium.”
However, according to Kelly, under a city ordinance, a bathroom cannot be converted to a bedroom or sleeping area without an additional permit, and therefore, the permit was improperly denied.
Jim Dye of the Bradenton firm, Dye, Deitrich, Petruff & St. Paul, represents McGuinness and the city.
In the city’s Sept. 1 answer to Kelly’s complaint, Dye denied the allegations relating to the mandamus request, but Smith found the general denial insufficient.
Dye has until Sept. 30 to file a written response on the issue.
The city adopted a moratorium Feb. 10 on building permits for residential units of four or more bedrooms or other rooms able to be converted to sleeping areas in R-2, R-3 and R-4 zoned areas — but with no specific restrictions on bathrooms.