The fight to “Keep the Country Country” continues.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: July 26, 2024
Host: In 2022, the Sarasota County Commission gave the thumbs up for the developer of Lakewood Ranch to build 5,000 homes on 4,100 acres of rural land, which would take out a big chunk of rural Sarasota County. Residents of the Old Miakka area are fighting in court to save their history, lifestyles and livelihoods. They lost a first round trying to stop the Lakewood Ranch Southeast megaproject. But now they’ve filed an appeal. We have the details.
Johannes Werner: Mike Hutchinson ran for the Sarasota County Commission in 2020 as a Republican and lost to Mike Moran, the developer-funded incumbent who became a leading force behind the approval of the Lakewood Ranch Southeast project. But this was a short episode in comparison to the extended legal battle Hutchinson and his wife Eileen Fitzgerald are in now against Sarasota County and the developer of Lakewood Ranch.
To recap: An administrative judge ruled against the plaintiffs in December. Next, they appealed to the Florida Department of Commerce, which rejected the appeal in March.
Now, almost four months later, their lawyer was able to file the paperwork for the appeal with the circuit court in Tampa.
Mike Hutchinson
Mike Hutchinson: Now appealing to the Circuit Court, Court of Appeal, and the brief was filed for that appeal. It got delayed because the Department of Commerce had to provide all the documentation from the administrative hearing, and they had problems doing that, so that stretched things out till now.
JW: It may take as much as five months until court proceedings begin, according to Hutchinson.
While the developer may begin construction on Lakewood Ranch Southeast, the pending lawsuit means they may have to stop if a judge rules in favor of the plaintiffs.
MH: So far, my understanding was after the administrative judge, that Lakewood Ranch could start construction at their risk, meaning if we won in the court, they would have to undo everything they did. So, so far they have not started a new construction.
JW: A specific judge has yet to be assigned to the case. But Hutchinson is hopeful.
MH: Well, we think we have a good case, so we wouldn’t be appealing, but as you probably know, you never know with a judge. It depends on the judge you get and so forth and so on. But our lawyer feels that there’s some significant errors in the case by the administrative judge that are in violation of Florida law. We feel we have a good case.
JW: Becky Ayech, a farmer in Old Miakka, was part of the first legal round as what’s called an intervenor. But she told WSLR News she is not a party to the appeal. And, according to Hutchinson, no new plaintiffs can join.
The legal cost has been in the tens of thousands of dollars, and growing. Hutchinson and Fitzgerald have been able to sustain this in part thanks to help from a community non-profit called Keep the Country Country Inc. Mike Hutchinson did not want to reveal the financial details.
MH: It’s partially being paid by Keep the Country. Any donations that keep coming to Keep the Country can be used to help fund that, and then the balance my wife and I pay. So I’d rather not get into actual costs because actually I haven’t kept track. Yeah, the community has been very generous. So, Keep the Country is a 501C4, so the money’s really not what we call tax deductible, but people have stepped up and made nice donations.
JW: Even if the Old Miakka residents win in court, the only sustainable solution is political, Hutchinson says.
MH: The goal is to stop this. But in the end, what we really need is good county commissioners, because they can always come back and try to do it again. And so we need to win this one and then get some good county commissioners like we’ve had in the past. It seems like the last eight, ten years, we haven’t had county commissioners to look out for the citizens of Sarasota.
JW: Johannes Werner, reporting for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.