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State to mediate dispute over condos
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer HOMOSASSA -- The state Department of Community Affairs is ready to dip its toe into the Halls River Retreat imbroglio -- not by joining the legal challenges, as the project's opponents had hoped, but by offering its services as a mediator. It is unclear if there is room to compromise over F. Blake Longacre's plans for a 54-unit timeshare condominium complex on the banks of the Halls River, a project opponents say is utterly at odds with the county's Comprehensive Plan. But DCA wants to try, general counsel Cari Roth said Wednesday. The project has pointed to apparent inconsistencies between the Comprehensive Plan, which discourages high-density growth west of U.S. 19, and mixed use zoning, which allowed up to 20 units per acre on the 11-acre site. The state agency hopes it can bring the county and the opponents to a common understanding of the development regulations, and possibly curb pending court battles over the project, Roth said. "Part of being a mediator is telling both sides the potential flaws in their argument and how they can get what they want out of a settlement that won't involve beating each other up in court," Roth said. "We're trying to be the consensus maker and work toward the ultimate solution here. "We want to make sure the law is being complied with, and part of that law is the (county commission's) actions have to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan," she said. "We particularly have an interest in making sure local government doesn't have an erroneous interpretation of the law, and how the zoning codes and the Comprehensive Plan fit together." The parties could meet with DCA as early as next week. The county and the condo opponents are open to mediation but are unsure whether it will help. "If somebody calls for mediation, the county will certainly show up," County Attorney Robert Battista said. "I don't know what may be on the table that's acceptable to all parties, that everyone would buy off on." "Conversation doesn't hurt . . . but I think it's going to be most difficult to reach any kind of compromise on this thing if you're talking about the number of units, from 63 to 54 to something else," said Carl Bertoch, an attorney representing Protect Our Waterways, an ad hoc group of homeowners fighting the project. Bertoch has called on DCA twice to review the County Commission's 3-2 approval of the condo project. The agency oversees the county's Comprehensive Plan, the thick document that is supposed to guide the county's growth. Bertoch hoped the agency would join the lawsuits alleging the project violates the Comprehensive Plan. But DCA declined to get involved in early April because, it said, it could not trump a local development order. Because the condo project did not require an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, the agency had no grounds to review it, said DCA community planning director H.E. "Sonny" Timmerman. Bertoch asked Timmerman to reconsider and argued that the county failed to follow the Comprehensive Plan requirements set out by DCA over the years. Bertoch raised several questions about the 11-acre property's zoning for mixed use, a high-density category that paved the way for the condo project. Why did the site keep its mixed use zoning after 1997, when the county eliminated that land use category from the Comprehensive Plan at DCA's urging? And why was the site zoned for mixed use to begin with? The one-time family compound had no vested development rights when the 1989 Comprehensive Plan blanketed much of the county with new zoning designations, and the plan was supposed to limit development west of U.S. 19 to one home per 40 acres, Bertoch said. DCA will remain neutral on those questions for now and hopes instead to work toward a compromise with the county, the developer and the objectors, Roth said. "We felt maybe this merited a closer look," she said. Protect Our Waterways and the Save the Homosassa River Alliance, an environmental group, have filed separate but similar challenges to the county's approval of Halls River Retreat. Each group has an appeal alleging procedural flaws in the Feb. 12 County Commission hearing on the project. If a judge finds the opponents were not given a fair shake at the hearing, he could require commissioners to hold a new hearing and take another vote on the project. Each group also has filed a lawsuit alleging the County Commission's approval of the project violates the Comprehensive Plan. DCA has declined to get involved with those lawsuits and encourages mediation instead. But if a judge agrees with the opponents, he could block the condos from being built. -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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