Stalwart like a tree, the owners of the Angelinos Sea Lodge tree house are back in court, asking the city of Holmes Beach to let voters decide the structure’s fate.
Placing an initiative on a municipal ballot to grandfather the tree house under city codes is their goal.
And to make it happen, the resort owners’ attorney filed a motion Feb. 4 looking for the 12th Judicial Circuit Court to direct the city commissioners to carry out the quest.
Sarasota attorney David Levin, of Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & Ginsburg, also asked the court to stop further enforcement of city fines, penalties and costs against the tree house owners, Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen, who enlisted two professional carpenters and built the structure seaward of the setback for the state’s erosion control line in 2011 without permits.
According to city attorneys, the proposed initiative cannot be put to a vote because it pertains to a development order.
Levin rebuts the city’s position in his February motion, arguing the tree house falls under an exception for structures “customarily incidental to enjoyment of the dwelling.”
The city has not responded to Levin’s motion, according to court records. City attorney Jim Dye, of the Dye, Deitrich, Petruff & St. Paul law firm of Bradenton, declined to comment Feb. 25.
Dye apparently expected the owners’ move, saying earlier in 2016, “They’re not going away quietly.”
Judge John F. Lakin is assigned to the case.
In 2013, a citizens committee, including Tran and Hazen, twice petitioned the city, once to show city officials the tree house support within the community, and again to put the question on the ballot.
The first petition presented to the mayor and commissioners in April 2013 garnered 5,000 unofficial signatures.
The second petition was deemed sufficient as an initiative in August 2013 by Holmes Beach city clerk Stacey Johnston.
The city then filed a complaint in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court, asking it to decide whether city officials should place the initiative on the ballot.
That same summer Tran and Hazen filed a separate court challenge to the city’s July 2013 code board rulings, which ordered fines and for the owners to move or remove the tree house.
After court proceedings in the code board appeal, Judge Janette Dunnigan issued a 27-page opinion in September 2014 in the city’s favor, a decision affirmed in 2015 by the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
City inspects tree house
Without much ado — in a story that’s reached across continents — Holmes Beach city officials inspected the beachfront two-story tree house Jan. 28 at 103 29th St.
Lynn Tran, owner of Angelinos Sea Lodge with husband Richard Hazen, said the inspection by the police chief, code enforcement officer and building official was “to determine if anything’s changed — and nothing’s changed.”
Supported by a towering Australian pine and four pilings, the tree house features two elevated observation decks, removable windows, solar paneling and wide views of the Gulf of Mexico.
According to HBPD Chief Bill Tokajer, while present at the January inspection, building official Jim McGuinness went into the tree house, performed an inspection and would be submitting a report with a finding of facts for the city’s position.
Tokajer, McGuinness and Mayor Bob Johnson said the report was not finished.
Johnson said a magistrate might be hearing the matter of the tree house related to code fines.
Despite several public record requests from The Islander, the city did not make a report or notes from the inspection available to the newspaper by press time.
Tran and Hazen have owned the property since 1999.
They began building the tree house in 2011 after approaching the city for advice. At the time, building inspector Bob Shaffer told Hazen the city had no regulations related to the construction of a tree house. Subsequently, no city or state permit was obtained by Tran-Hazen before building the tree house.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website, the Australian pine is known for its shallow root system and tendency to uproot and topple during high winds.
The Angelinos tree has been on the property for at least 30 years and measures 89 inches in diameter and has weathered many storms, according to court papers filed by the owners’ attorney.
— Kathy Prucnell