The plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city of Bradenton Beach asked the 12th Circuit Court to issue a temporary injunction preventing the city from completing work to convert a small beachfront park on Gulf Drive to a four-car parking lot.
Commissioners voted 3-2 Jan. 8 to hire Gator Grading & Paving of Palmetto to proceed with the work, to keep the city in compliance with a joint development agreement entered into in May 2012 with ELRA Inc., the corporate entity of Ed Chiles’ Beachhouse Restaurant at 200 Gulf Drive N..
Attorney Ralf Brookes of Cape Coral filed the motion in circuit court Jan. 12, for plaintiffs Jo Ann Meilner and Tjet Martin, life partner of Mayor Bill Shearon. They sued the city over the agreement in June 2012.
The vote was to add parking to the beach access on Gulf Drive adjacent to the parking lot on the south side of the restaurant. The city’s beach access — a street ending at the Gulf of Mexico — was previously improved with landscaping and benches.
Commissioners knew that both approval and denial of the motion had consequences. On the one hand, engineer Lynn Burnett told them that if they did not approve the motion they would not meet the obligations of their agreement with Chiles.
City attorney Ricinda Perry told commissioners that defaulting on the agreement could have “potential legal ramifications.”
On the other hand, the Martin/Meilner lawsuit is still pending in court. Completing the parking lot before conclusion of the lawsuit also could have ramifications. Shearon was a complainant to the lawsuit until he was elected and dropped out in November 2013.
Commissioners voted knowing the 12-month permit extension granted last spring for the project by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection would expire April 15, with no more extensions available.
“Here we are again,” Burnett, of Bradenton-based LTA Engineers, told commissioners. “Our time is proverbially running out.”
Vice Mayor Jack Clarke and commissioners Ed Straight and Jan Vosburgh voted for the project. Shearon and Commissioner Janie Robertson dissented.
Vosburgh and Straight were on the commission that approved the original agreement with Chiles.
“I’m really disappointed and somewhat surprised,” Shearon said. “The commission has taken a natural preservation park and now it’s going to be converted to four parking spaces with all the vegetation taken out, including trees that were funded by the (Florida Department of Transportation) through the (federal) stimulus program.”
“This is despite, too, that this is in violation of our comp plan.”
Commissioners voted to pay Gator Grading up to $14,500 for installation of the parking lot improvements, including pavers, signage, wheel stops, drainage swales and landscaping at the city-owned park.
The city also will pay LTA Engineers up to $500 to coordinate completion of the project.
Straight was concerned that if commissioners delayed the project, Gator Grading’s costs could escalate.
Commissioners first approved an alternative motion requesting funds for species removal and replanting, plus the permit paperwork, but no parking lot construction. But the second motion rendered the first motion moot.
The Martin/Meilner lawsuit was expected to be a topic of discussion when commissioners met in a shade meeting with attorneys earlier on Jan. 8. The outcome of that meeting, and the minutes, will remain secret until the lawsuit is resolved or settled.
Meanwhile, commissioners voted unanimously to hire attorney Mark Barnebey of the Bradenton-based Blalock Walters law firm to represent the city if a circuit court judge issues an order to show cause in Martin’s other lawsuit against the city.
Martin is suing the city because she was told she would have to pay $780 for public records requested in July 2014. The fee is excessive and those records have not yet been fully provided, according to Brookes, Martin’s attorney in that case.
Its REALLY APPALLING that beachfront land is to be ruined for four parking spaces.