Looking behind the decision

AL GREEN

Contributing Columnist

green@lbknews.com

The Longboat Key Town Commission has decided to appeal the decision of the Circuit Court in Sarasota that denied the Longboat Key Club the right to proceed with its proposed development.

I haven’t had a chance to read the appeal and hopefully I will be able to understand the premise of the appeal and report upon it in a subsequent column.

For the moment, the concerns addressed by the court should be understood more clearly by the electorate of the town since the issues that the judge raised are more political than legal. By that I mean that any casual reading of the decision clearly demonstrates that the court’s disapproval could easily be rectified by a compliant Town Commission.

This is why it becomes a political problem that will be decided not in a court of law but at the ballot box in March when Vice Mayor David Brenner faces the challenge of Ray Rajewski. This will be the only opportunity for the voters to participate in the decision process.

To begin my analysis, it must be noted that the hearings in front of the commission were quasi-judicial. While the intent of the law was to avoid public pressure in zoning cases, it also gave a more important legal veneer to the process. The town could argue that the proposed development plan was judicially weighed and consequently had legal standing. Since the makeup of this alleged ‘court’ is still the seven sitting commissioners, it still is a political matter.

The first item that hits you is that if the town wanted to win this appeal, the first thing they had to do was get rid of Monica Simpson, the head of the Planning and Zoning Department at the time of the application process. Her testimony against the plan was devastating. As you know, this has been accomplished — Ms. Simpson is history. Not a coincidence.

“The Staff Report and Mrs. Simpson’s testimony indicated that the Key Club’s application did not comply with the Zoning Code.”

The court went on to say “Where the Zoning Code is clear and unambiguous; it must be interpreted and applied as written.”

It further goes on to say “the testimony of the town’s Director of Planning establishes that the development orders were insufficient to guarantee would meet all of the requirements of the code.”

Where the conduct of the commissioners comes into the case is when the judge condemns the commission for passing the amended application without allowing it to be reviewed by the P&Z Board. The Town Charter makes it a requirement that any amendment to a site plan be reviewed by this board. The commissioners were in such a hurry to get this passed, they didn’t want to waste their time with technicalities.

Once again quoting from the ruling: “The Town Commission’s departures from the requirements of the Zoning Code infringed on Petitioners’ legitimate expectations and constituted a miscarriage of justice.”

My final reference to the decision and why it really is more of a political that legal issue is the final summation by the court:

“If the town wishes to authorize the proposed meeting center, offices, spa, commercial recreation and parking garage uses, it must first amend the Zoning Code and specifically designate these uses for the GPD.”

Vice Mayor Brenner stands ready to do this, candidate Ray Rajewski stands ready to oppose it. What could be clearer?

This is a decision that affects hundreds of residents of Islandside and eventually more hundreds at Harbourside. Don’t let something this important hang on a decision by a judge. He or she doesn’t live on Longboat Key, you do.