Earlier this year, Nassau County settled a lawsuit with Riverstone Properties, Inc. What happened there is a good lesson for those of us in St Johns County who want our Commissioners to reject or slow development.
It is important to know about a Florida Statute called the “Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act.” The act protects the property rights of the owner against burdens placed on them by a government entity.
In Nassau County, Riverstone Properties owned 50 acres of land with a plan to develop that land into residential tower properties of 85 feet where zoning maxed out at 35 feet. They were denied.
Sounds great, right? Good for the Commissioners to stand up to the developers.
Not quite. Riverstone presented a notice of claim for $27 million in damages under the Bert Harris Act. They said that the denial of the planned build created a loss to the value of the property.
Long story short, negotiations lasted for months, ultimately ending in a settlement where Riverstone would build buffers and donate beach access land but would build the 85 foot towers and the County would pay Riverstone’s attorney fees.
In April 2023, the Commissioners voted 4-1 to settle, creating an angry crowd of residents who felt betrayed. According to the Fernandina Observer, the BoCC’s decision to approve the settlement was ultimately a financial one. The county had already spent millions of dollars defending itself against Riverstone’s lawsuit, and it was facing the prospect of paying even more if the case went to trial. The settlement agreement will save the county millions of dollars in legal fees, and it will also bring in millions of dollars in tax revenue from the development.
It is important to understand how things work regarding land development in the state of Florida. Florida is a property rights state. That means that owners have substantial leeway and local governments are limited in their ability to slow or deny development.
Laying Blame Is a Fool’s Errand
We can blame the commissioners all we want. But do we really want to lay that blame when there is only so much that they can do without running the risk of a developer doing what Riverstone did?
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