“The saga of the treehouse is over,” said Judge Edward Nicholas of the 12th Circuit Court. “The treehouse is coming down.”
Nicholas ruled Feb. 28 that the beachfront treehouse at the Angelinos Sea Lodge, 2818 Ave. E, Holmes Beach, must be removed within 90 days of the publication of his order.
He also ruled that the city can enter the property after providing reasonable notice — 72 hours — to remove the structure at the cost of the owners if it is not removed within 90 days.
“This is not about taking anyone’s property,” Nicholas said. “Ultimately, this is no more complicated than a respondent’s unwillingness to accept the fact that they built the structure in violation of the code.”
Property owners Richard Hazen and Lynn Tran-Hazen began building the treehouse in an Australian pine tree on the beachside of Angelinos in May 2011.
The structure was mostly completed by November 2011, when the city received an anonymous complaint.
The treehouse is within 30 feet of the erosion control line — a state-set boundary between private land and public property on nourished beaches — within the 50-foot construction setback for the ECL.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection provided a notice of violation Nov. 29, 2011, and the owners were unable to obtain an after-the-fact permit for the structure because they lacked a letter of no objection from the city.
The city never provided such a letter and instead issued notices of code violations in April 2013.
The owners filed their first lawsuit against the city June 13, 2013, challenging the constitutionality of the city’s setback restrictions that prohibit the treehouse.
In July 2013, the city’s code enforcement board ruled against the owners and fined them. The board ordered the Hazens to comply with city code or remove the structure.
The ruling was upheld in the 12th Circuit Court in 2014 and in the 2nd District Court of Appeal in 2015.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied two petitions from the Hazens to hear the case.
Nevertheless, litigation by the Hazens’ attorney and pro se — acting as attorneys for themselves — continued for years on a handful of cases.
The owners’ initial 2013 lawsuit against the city concluded in January 2023, when Nicholas issued a final ruling in favor of the city and deemed municipal code prohibiting the treehouse did not violate the Hazens’ constitutional rights.
In November 2023, the DEP and the owners agreed on a judgment allowing the treehouse to remain provided wood and concrete pilings were replaced with an engineered alternative support system.
Final hearing
By 2024, the only remaining case not resolved or undergoing appeal was the City of Holmes Beach v. property owners, which the city filed in 2018, asking the court to enforce the code board’s order to remove the treehouse.
An almost four-hour hearing was held Feb. 28 before Nicholas.
Attorney Randy Mora represented the city with the help of testimony from planning and zoning administrator Chad Minor and code enforcement administrator Kim Charron.
Tran-Hazen represented Hazen and herself at the hearing, which began with a discussion on the owners’ Feb. 20 motion to void and vacate the code enforcement board’s order.
Tran-Hazen argued that former building inspector Bob Shaffer cleared the treehouse for construction without a permit in April 2011.
Tran said it was not until they asked for a letter of no objection in 2013 that the matter became an issue for the municipality.
Mora, however, said the code board’s order was settled law and called the owners’ motion to vacate the order “without legal or factual basis.”
Nicholas denied Tran-Hazen’s motion.
“There is no reasonable judge in the state of Florida that would not consider this most recent filing redundant, duplicitous, dilatory, repetitive, untimely, collaterally stopped, and filed solely for purposes of delay,” Nicholas said. “The arguments Mrs. Tran has made here have been made for a decade.”
In denying the owners’ motion, the judge granted the city’s motion for sanctions, ordering the owners to pay $2,800 to refund the city’s legal fees.
Mora also asked Nicholas for sanctions to prevent the owners from taking additional legal steps regarding the treehouse, but the judge said he would have to give such an “extreme” remedy further consideration.
The parties then made arguments on the city’s petition for an order to compel compliance, which would require the removal of the treehouse.
Mora argued the treehouse cannot be allowed under code, so it must be removed.
He asked Nicholas to order the removal of the treehouse.
“That structure still stands because the respondents refuse to respect the orders of this court and its sister courts,” Mora said.
“Nothing will be enough until this court compels it. … It’s time to resolve this. All litigation must come to an end. This is that end, your honor,” he added.
Nicholas granted the city’s request to compel removal within 90 days of his order, as well as to allow the municipality to enter the property and remove the structure if it remains after 90 days.
“Ultimately, the bottom line is that the structure remains within the impermissible setback,” Nicholas said. “The treehouse is, was and remains in violation of the city code.”
“Noncompliance of this unpermitted structure has gone on far too long,” he added.
Nicholas said the only way to stop the removal would be for the owners to secure a stay from the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
Reactions
Tran-Hazen, March 1, said she and Hazen were unsure if they would appeal Nicholas’ ruling.
“I’m taking a mind break and meditating in the treehouse for a few days for a good answer,” she wrote.
Mayor Judy Titsworth told The Islander March 1, “I was hoping I would see a conclusion while I was still in office. So it feels really good that we finally got there. … It’s been forever.”
She said the city has not arranged to remove the treehouse.
“I am hoping (Hazen) is going to comply with the order,” Titsworth said. “If we get to that point, that’s a bridge we’ll have to cross at that time.”
Accruing fines
In the meantime, city fines against the owners continue to pile up.
A special magistrate updated the code board’s 2013 order in 2016 to assess the owners a $50 daily fine that began July 22, 2015.
A magistrate also ruled in April 2021 to fine the owners $125 per day from March 18, 2021, until they obtain a valid vacation rental certificate from the city for the rental units they operate at the lodge, where they also reside.
Despite lacking a city-issued rental certificate since 2021, the property has continued to be used for rental activity, with a $205 per night pre-tax rate to stay in the most affordable of four cottages as of March 1, according to angelsealodge.com.
More than $292,125 in total fines have accrued against the property owners as of March 1, adding to an almost $200,000 litigation bill.
City treasurer Cindy Dunham-Tozer did not respond to a March 1 email from The Islander asking for the city’s cost of litigation by the newspaper’s press deadline.