Sarasota News Leader

06/20/2014

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That legal action took the form of the owners' petitioning for relief under the Florida Land Use Environmental Dispute Resolution Act. Now the Allens and the county will go before a Special Magistrate, who will consider both sides and make recommendations for a reso- lution, which could include having the county purchase the land as a conservation area or specifying what sort of construction on the property would be acceptable to the county for a GBSL variance. We certainly believe that people have a rea- sonable expectation for the use of their land, but little about this matter seems reasonable to us. The exorbitant sum paid by the Allens for the two lots would lead one to presume that they commissioned exhaustive due diligence by land use attorneys and building experts prior to their purchase. That is what com- mon sense would dictate before someone spends in excess of $10 million for two small parcels of beach property. And such due dil- igence surely would have highlighted both the impracticality of building on those lots, as well as the limited possibilities for win- ning regulatory approval from the County Commission to do so. The implication from Merrill's April com- ments to the commission was that no such due diligence was conducted. The Allens had no idea they would not be able to build what- ever they liked on the property, according to Merrill. There is a Southern expression that might be appropriate in this situation: having "more dollars than sense." Certainly, a reasonable person examining the Allens' history with this land would be far more shocked by their blithe indifference to the many hurdles that typically accompany building structures on a beach than the fact that the Allens have found their land has no practical use for them. What is worse is how the county taxpayers are potentially at risk for the Allens' clueless- ness. Through their attorney, they are seeking to use state law to force the county to either allow dangerous construction, which could imperil not only the planned structure but also nearby dwellings in the event of a signif- icant storm, or buy the land from the Allens to preserve it. It boggles the mind that taxpayers could be expected to pay additional funds to secure, in undeveloped form, a piece of land that for more than 25 years has been prohibited from development by the GBSL. We can only hope that the Special Magistrate who hears the petition will have the presence of mind to recognize that only the Allens are responsible for the folly of buying the land in the first place, especially without ascer- taining if it could be developed. We therefore hope the Special Magistrate will deny them any special relief beyond what is permissible by the county's own coastal zoning. Unfortunately, people who could afford to pay more than $10 million for virtually worthless land likely have the resources to flog the legal system until someone, some- where will grant them compensation for their imagined "taking." But in all likelihood, the only "taking" will be from the pockets of county taxpayers. % OPINION Sarasota News Leader June 20, 2014 Page 94

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