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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 31,
2006
Last Stand
Contact:
Bridget McDonald
Phone:
305-296-3335
Local
Attorneys Goldman and Dadd Receive Last Stand’s Outstanding
Activist Award, Win Appeal on Watermark Height Violation
Wednesday
was V-Day for two local attorneys who’ve been doing battle with
the city for two years. While being presented with Last Stand’s
Outstanding Activist Award at the group’s annual meeting on
Wednesday night, local attorneys Bob Goldman and Eric Dadd were
soon to learn of their victory on the Watermark case – the same
case for which they were being honored. When a 3rd
District Appellate Court in Miami dismissed the two appeals
filed by developer Caroline Street Partners and by the City of
Key West, neighbors in the historic seaport area celebrated the
possible end of a long struggle.
With
minimal monetary compensation, Goldman and Dadd have championed
the neighbors’ legal action against the City of Key West for
approving the Watermark project, which does not comply with the
city’s own ordinances on building height, stories, transient
rental units or floor area ratio restrictions. The project,
planned for a parcel that once housed Jabour’s trailer park, is
just behind
Schooner
Wharf
bar on the waterfront. The plaintiffs in the case, a handful of
neighbors who were following Watermark development plans, filed
a petition for Writ of Common Law Certiorari against the
city, which was heard in August by Monroe County Circuit Court
Judge Richard Payne, who ruled against the developers. The case
was appealed by both the developers and the city, and the
three-judge panel once again ruled with the neighbors, tossing
out the appeals.
With the
help of Last Stand, a local environmental group that works to
protect habitat and quality of life, neighbors in the seaport
area were able to raise funds for legal expenses in filing the
petition and preparing to fight the appeal. But it’s not over
yet.
The city’s
Historic Architectural Review Commission (HARC) had plans to
review the city’s height ordinance among others at a public
workshop on Feb. 14. Developer on the Watermark project, Donald
Craig, who also serves on the HARC commission, is pushing to
amend the 2.5 story limit on new construction in the historic
district. That workshop has since been cancelled at the request
of City Attorney Bob Tischenkel.
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