Pegasus Lawyer: Green Cove Bent Its Rules To Do Virginia Hall a Favor
The City Designated a Single-Use Apartment Complex as 'Mixed Use'
M. Scott Thomas, lawyer for Pegasus Technologies, just came out and said it. Under the Green Cove Springs Comprehensive Plan, the city council cannot “do whatever they want based on the political connections of the owner of the land.”
During a hearing on Thursday, Thomas tried to persuade Judge Don Lester of the Florida Circuit Court to issue a “summary judgement” undoing the City Council’s decision to rezone a 14-acre parcel belonging to the Hall family, most notably Virginia Hall.
Thomas’ assertion that the Halls may have received preferential treatment (he mentioned it twice) was incidental to matter at hand. In a summary-judgement action, the judge is supposed make a decision based on legal issues as long as facts are not in dispute, regardless of a player’s motivation. Nevertheless, Thomas had managed to enter into public record the narrative of the “well connected owner.”1
The law in question, according to Thomas, is the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
Last June, the city obliged a request by the Hall family to annex 14 acres of unincorporated Clay County land, and then immediately rezoned it from light industrial to mix-use so a developer could erect a 260-unit, four-story apartment complex.
Pegasus Technologies, an aviation company operating a nearby runway at Reynolds Industrial Park objected, citing public safety and aircraft noise considerations.
The summary-judgement motion is part of a lawsuit Pegasus filed against the city, but the motion is mainly concerned with the narrow legal issue of whether the city’s Comprehensive Plan had been ignored when the city rezoned the parcel to mixed use even though it would be 100 percent residential—with no mix of uses.
Thomas argued, “mixed use” means two or more different uses, with residential being a secondary use.
Had the city tried to designate the parcel as residential, it would have created a so-called “spot zone” among the surrounding parcels under county jurisdiction, which would have been more difficult to defend. Instead, according to Thomas, the mixed-use designation created a de facto spot zone: “A tiny donut hole of residential zoning surrounded on all sides by light industrial or heavy industrial.”
Thomas also alleged that the city had ignored its Comprehensive Plan by failing to coordinate its actions with the county, which has its own Comprehensive Plan. In his pleading to the judge, Thomas characterized the annexation and rezoning as a “hostile takeover.”
Speaking for Hall, Attorney Fred Franklin said the judge need not rely solely on the text of the city’s Comprehensive Plan, but could take into account interpretations by experts, including City Planning Director Michael Daniels, who has testified in a deposition that an apartment complex was indeed consistent with mixed-use zoning.
Franklin also argued that there is nothing in the law that supports the argument that mixed-use zoning really has to accomodate more than one use. He said Pegasus had presented no evidence that the city had failed to coordinate with the county. He did not address the question of whether the city may have bent the rules for his client.
Judge Lester said he would review the arguments and legal precedents cited by each side before he issues a ruling. Meanwhile, a non-jury trial has been scheduled for July 6 and 7.
Win or lose, the city is facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend itself, even if neither side appeals Lester’s ruling, which would mean even more expensive litigation.
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From the May 10 story Green Cove Crosses a Shadowy Aviation Outfit, Faces Financial Consequences:
“Hall is granddaughter of the sheriff who somehow became a millionaire while earning a modest government salary during his 36-year tenure—J.P. Hall. She is the daughter of J.P. Hall Jr., the philantropist who made a name for himself giving away a portion of the family fortune. And she has been a presence in local politics in her own right, including six years as a Green Cove city councilor.”