A hearing ordered before a special magistrate has been delayed in a case in Bradenton Beach, but the delay hasn’t slowed legal action on the sidelines.
Bradenton Beach property owners George and Wendy Kokolis — recipients of city permits to remodel 308 Gulf Drive S. — want to weigh in on a court case neighbor John Metz filed against Bradenton Beach for improper permitting.
In a motion to intervene, Kokolis’ Sarasota attorney, Robert Lincoln, seeks to turn back the clock on an Aug. 11 order entered by 12th Circuit Judge Gilbert A. Smith Jr.
Lincoln filed the motion Aug. 17, contending the court was wrong to enter an order that affects third parties, “particularly where the party is not before the court.”
With Smith’s order, Metz won a hearing — previously denied by the city — before the city’s special master.
The city canceled an Aug. 23 special master hearing on the Metz case after Metz’s attorney, Nelon Kirkland, advised he would be on vacation. The administrative hearing had not been rescheduled by press time for the Aug. 31 edition of The Islander.
Metz first complained to Bradenton Beach city officials in February about a fourplex approved for remodel in the C2-zone.
However, his request fell flat when building official Steve Gilbert and city attorney Ricinda Perry claimed a late filing.
Metz, a planning and zoning board member and a former California attorney, now residing in Bradenton Beach full time, took the case to court in June.
Metz won his case in a Manatee County courtroom Aug. 11 after attorney Fred Moore of Blalock and Walters, on behalf of the city, conceded to the judge that, in fact, Metz had timely filed his case.
Kokolis purchased the property in October 2014 and obtained a permit for work on the foundation and first floor in June 2015, according to Lincoln’s motion.
The motion also states the city issued a certificate of completion in July 8, 2016, “for the repairs,” after which Kokolis occupied the structure.
Metz said the Kokolises are investors — with more than 10 properties in Bradenton Beach.
Metz resides in one unit of a Gulf Drive duplex he owns and rents out a second unit.
His concern is about the likely impact of the new four-unit remodel due to a lack of parking and a history of renters’ trespassing.
Metz said he’s watched the building expand from “virtually uninhabitable,” with laborers working eight-hour days, five days a week for more than 10 months.
He called it a “glaring example” of over-repairing, including two new kitchens, appliances, a new security system, an added bathroom and relocation of the stairs.
“The city does nothing I’ve seen to check on any of it,” Metz said.
Metz’s initial pleading claimed Kokolis’ building was continuously uninhabited February 2014 to June 2016.
According to the city’s land-development code, Metz said after 18 months, it should have been deemed an abandoned, non-conforming residential use in a commercial district.
As far as why the Kokolises weren’t included in his initial court action, Metz said, he’s not “after them for any reason.”
It’s the city decisions he protests.
While the zoning argument is the crux of the fight against the initial 2014 remodel permit, Metz said he’s also filed a complaint — at the city level — against its issuance of a completeness certificate.
Metz claims the city violated the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s rule that limits remodel work to 50 percent of the structure’s value, allowing improper expansion of a non-conforming use.
He said setbacks and elevation requirements were ignored.
“The building official is supposed to be enforcing the 50 percent rule,” Metz said, but building official Steve Gilbert has claimed he couldn’t do anything about it.
At one time, however, Gilbert acknowledged the rule violation, he said.
“He believed it was beyond the 50 percent rule, but he’s not saying this now. But he specifically told us that,” Metz said of a conversation between Gilbert, himself and his wife, LeeAnne Metz.