The new city commissioner was put to the test, as her colleague squared off with a developer.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: December 4, 2024
Host: The newly constituted Sarasota City Commission went through a test on Monday. That test came about when Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch made a motion to take back a vote the outgoing commission made a month earlier. At issue was a downtown street the city handed over to a developer, before seeing the developer’s site plan. Ahearn-Koch wanted more discussion on how the developer’s yet-to-be-known project would benefit the public.
Ahearn-Koch
Johannes Werner: Ahearn-Koch did get a second from newly elected Commissioner Kathy Kelley Ohlrich, and that opened the gates for a back-and-forth between commissioners, the developer’s lawyer and consultant, and the city attorney.
Ahearn-Koch wanted more discussion with the developers about how Sarasota residents stand to benefit from giving up Cross Street to Orange Pineapple LLC, a Virginia-based developer who has yet to provide any specifics about their mixed-use project. The commissioner also wanted to know why the Cross Street vacation had to happen now.
Jen Ahearn-Koch: So, this is not something that’s done weekly or daily or monthly, or even yearly. This was something that I put out there, not because the process was rushed in any way, shape, or form. I attended everything that you all put out there. You did what you needed to do. Unfortunately, there were not two hurricanes, but three. And the people that were impacted are not just the people sitting at this table, but also the community. Hurricane Debbie
Cross Street
happened, Hurricane Helene, and Hurricane Milton. That impacted the public’s ability to come before this body. This was not a priority of theirs so much. All of a sudden, not one hurricane, but three hurricanes. It’s very different. We’ve never had that. We’ve never had a hurricane directly hit us before. Talk about unprecedented. That is unprecedented. Hasn’t happened to the city in our history that we know of.
Merrill
So, my point is, I am begrudged about a vote. It’s an unprecedented motion that I’m making; this is extraordinary circumstances that happened to our community and to our city. And us taking action on something when there is no clear reason why this has to happen now — why vacate this street now when they have up to three years for a site plan? Up to seven for a permit? Three years. Three years. Why now? And I would love to hear the answer to that.
I am not saying I cannot foresee this body continuing on the vote that we continued on and had. What I’m saying is due process is in order here for the community and for this commission.
JW: She did not get any responses at that meeting. Instead, what the commissioners got was an unusually clear threat from a developer’s attorney that the city will be sued for “hundreds of millions of dollars”. Icard Merrill attorney Bill Merrill trained the big legal guns at the commissioners. While his voice remained soft and his tone was courteous, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders at the beginning of his speech.
Icard Merrill: To say that we were shocked and surprised about this when we first learned about it is an understatement. My clients are very upset and very concerned about this. And I think a lot of this goes directly to a respect for process. I received an email this morning from CityPAC about respect for process. And that’s what this is. This is a highly unusual, irregular process. It’s a very similar approach to take after an ordinance has been adopted that establishes property rights for a particular party.
This is not just a general ordinance that the city adopts, but it is an ordinance directed for a particular party and related to property rights in that regard where the city has granted property rights and the client, our client, and our owner has relied upon that.
JW: Merrill dropped the words “property rights” a dozen times. He showed the documents of the seven easements the developer granted since they began the process last year, suggesting they could not be undone. He cited Roberts Rules, the city charter, city zoning code, the city’s comprehensive plan, state statutes, and the Florida and US constitutions.
IM: These are very, very serious actions that you’re taking, and I would suggest that it certainly not be taken. If you decide to vote on it despite what Robert’s Rules of Order tells you, which says you cannot vote on this, there are many consequences that could result, and this is not so much as a threat, but it’s to tell you that I think you would be violating a number of different violations of a number of different laws that you are obligated to follow.
JW: Ohlrich asked what kind of resources the developer has spent in the month since the commission vacated Cross Street. Merrill said “significant amounts of money”, without specifying. He added it was “impossible to undo”.
Citing the precedent a recission would set for the city, four of the five commissioners, including Ohlrich and Debbie Trice, voted no on Ahearn’s motion. Trice, who had previously said she saw no compelling reason to give up the street, asked the developer to organize more community meetings.
So, the deal stands: The street remains private property, conditionally. In return for the public street, the developer promises 50 parking spaces. If the project does not happen within a set time frame, Orange Pineapple will return Cross Street to the public.
With that, it remains to be seen how Debbie Trice and Kathy Kelley Ohlrich will pick their battles.
Johannes Werner, reporting from Sarasota for WSLR News.
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