The 5th District Court of Appeal ordered the parties to the table in the dispute over a Harbor Sound development permit.
A Nov. 5 mediation order authorized by 5th DCA Judge William D. Palmer requires developer Pat Neal and the group of complainants to choose a mediator and complete mediation within 45 days.
The complainants, former Manatee County Commissioner Joseph McClash and several environmental groups represented by Cape Coral attorney Ralf Brookes, filed the appeal, contesting a Southwest Florida Water Management District decision to grant a permit for four homes and associated facilities, including a retaining wall and driveways, on 3.46 acres along Anna Maria Sound.
About 1 acre is wetlands, including high-quality mangroves, which protect the island against flooding and erosion and provide nurseries for marine life.
The decision allows the development in exchange for an estimated $100,000-$150,000 payment to a mitigation bank to improve wetlands some 50 miles north of the Perico destruction.
A land trust owned by Neal of Neal Communities controls Harbor Sound as part of a 40-acre parcel.
Mediation requires a “mutually acceptable resolution” or a “declaration of impasse” after 45 days of mediation, Brookes said.
He added that mediation is a “unique aspect” of the 5th DCA — that most appellate courts don’t offer mediation.
Prior to entering the order, the court polled the attorneys to determine whether mediation was advisable.
“I’m a mediator. I think mediation is always worth exploring,” Brookes said.
Neal said, “We’ll certainly comply with any order of the court.
“We trust the legal processes and have the facts and law on our side,” Neal added.
Developer loses bid to move Swiftmud appeal
Environmentalists who have been striking on several fronts against Harbor Sound — a Pat Neal development on Perico Island — can chalk up a win in their first appellate court skirmish.
With a one-line order dated Nov. 4, a 5th District Court of Appeal three-judge panel denied the developer’s motion to transfer the appeal to the 2nd DCA.
“I won that one,” said Cape Coral attorney Ralf Brookes, representing McClash, the Florida Institute of Saltwater Heritage, Suncoast Waterkeeper and Sierra Club.
Brookes argued the venue was proper in the 5th DCA in Daytona Beach because the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s headquarters is in that district.
Neal’s attorney, Douglas P. Manson, of Manson Bolves Donaldson of Tampa, was looking to move the appeal to the 2nd DCA based in Lakeland, arguing convenience for the litigants and the property’s location within the district.
Neal said Nov. 5 he’s considering a challenge to the 5th DCA denial, adding “the law is all with us.”
Brookes filed the appeal in the 5th DCA Sept. 24 to overturn a Swiftmud decision allowing Neal’s four-home development on the mangrove-lined shore of Anna Maria Sound.
Before Neal can work in federal-delineated wetlands, however, a pending U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit also is required.
— Kathy Prucnell