The first acceptance among 20 purchase offers made to Bert Harris claimants by the city of Anna Maria was made in September.
An offer of $1,212,925 for the property at 117 Willow Ave. was accepted Sept. 20.
However, the city will not be the buyer in this proposed settlement. Instead, the city will seek an investor to facilitate the purchase of the property.
The corporate entity, 117 Willow LLC, was offered an alternative settlement of 10 occupants for the four-bedroom home, but rejected the occupancy settlement in favor of the sale.
The Willow claim was filed May 23 by the law firm Najmy Thompson P.L. of Bradenton.
The Bert Harris Jr. Private Property Protection Act of 1995 allows property owners to seek monetary relief if they can prove a government action lowered the value of their property.
Since April 1, when Anna Maria’s vacation rental ordinance went into effect, short-term rental homes have been limited to an eight-person occupancy. Soon afterward, homeowners began filing Bert Harris claims against the city, claiming financial losses because of the limits on occupancy.
Some vacation rental homes, built before the VRO was adopted, have more than four bedrooms. Also, before the VRO, there were no occupancy limits for residential properties.
The 117 Willow property claimed before April to accommodate 12-14 guests.
According to Mayor Dan Murphy, the city has received responses to an estimated 20 or more settlement offers. More than 50 settlement offers have been extended by the city to claimants thus far.
The city has received 70 Bert Harris claims in total, including two filed Sept. 29, one for 508 Spring Ave., owned by Anna Maria Coastal Homes LLC, claiming a $345,000 loss in value. The other new claim for 210 Palmetto Ave., owned by Rainer Zschoernig, claims $205,000 in lost value.
A total of $23,679,000 in loss claims have been filed against the city to date.
The purchase offers made by the city on 20 claims amount to more than $21 million based on the appraised value in the claims plus 1.5 percent.
— Bianca Benedí