By Mike Lednovich
The Fernandina Beach City Commission will vote Tuesday to approve a $445,000 settlement to the developers of the Courtyard by Marriott and Springhill Suites, who sued the city claiming the city collected “unreasonable” fees on the project.
According to the city commission agenda, Main Beach Sojourn and Compass Group will be refunded the money plus interest from the hotel project at 2700 Atlantic Avenue.
The developers filed a lawsuit in December 2022, claiming the city’s Building Department had levied fees that were “unreasonable.” The lawsuit also claimed that money collected from the project intended as fire marshal fees did not go to the correct city account, but instead was deposited into the city’s General Fund.
According to the city summary of the settlement, “Finally, the City Commission wishes to settle the lawsuit styled Main Beach Sojourn, LLLP et al. v. City of Fernandina Beach, Case No.: 2022-CA-414 in the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court in and for Nassau County to avoid further litigation costs, and refund building permit fees in the amount of $444,780.82 which includes simple interest at the fixed rate of 5% from May 11, 2021 (date of issuance of Certificate of Occupancy) through December 1, 2023.”
The summary states, “Staff also recommends transferring a total of $445,000.00 from the Building Fund Reserve account, to the Building Fund account, to refund disputed building permit fees. This refund of building permit fees is not to be paid from the General Fund taxpayer dollars.”
The city will also refund $69,000 it overcharged in non-utility impact fees paid by Compass Group, Inc. because the hotel, once completed, included less square footage than the original building plans had indicated.
In its filing of the lawsuit against the city, the developers said the city of Fernandina Beach collection of impact fees totaling $450,889, were “not roughly proportionate to impacts” of the project. “The city did not conduct sufficient analysis to establish that the fees were roughly proportionate to the impact of new construction to municipal facilities …”
What about all the trees that were removed that shouldn’t have been. Did the city recover those funds from the developers
Bless Their Heart. AYUP! Mayberry by the Sea. In the Great Southern State of Florida.
If you go back to 2021, the hotel at Atlantic Avenue and Fletcher Avenue incorporated numerous changes to their originally approved plans. When copies of the revised plan were requested from the developer, the developer indicated that a “private provider” had reviewed and approved all of the revisions. This is problem #1. The City should be the one signing off on all revisions and changes.
……But as always the plot thickens, later the private provider indicated through email messages that no such review action had taken place.
The construction at the hotel was originally indicated to have “non-combustible” trusses, (probably metal). Through the efforts of City Inspectors, they discovered that wooden trusses had been utilized instead of the planned non-combustible materials.
Hence, significant safety revisions had to be redesigned and incorporated to ensure life and property safety of future guests, solely because of the actions of the developer.
Tourism and development may be the lifeblood of this community but safety is not.
And if I continue to remember back, wasn’t Johnny Miller the only Commissioner at the time to try and save maritime oaks on the site? And wasn’t there some kind of compromise that in order to build so close to the sidewalk a significant maritime tree buffer had to be saved???? Who’s sure that ever happened?
Also to my memory, isn’t this the same guy that tried, years before, to sue the City for Gateway to Amelia and the back apartments having to annex into the City after they had been awarded sewer services some years before?
This guy always tries to get one over. The simple solution back then …. would have been to cut off the water and sewer service and rescind the ordinance that annexed them into the City and let Gateway to Amelia, Marsh Cove, LLC., and Somerset Apartments figure out their undersized systems on their own.
Always the same. Blah, blah- but you can be assured that I’m going to sue the pants off you to get mine……
’unreasonable’ building department fees on developers and homeowners have been a problem in this city for a long time. I’m glad they won this settlement and got their money back ( plus 5% interest)….and FB citizens should be glad too.
Incompetence abounds on Amelia Island. If it’s not the developers, it’s the City of Fernandina officials or the Nassau county officials. Problem is, the taxpayers end up on the hook for said “ officials’ “ blunders. Will it ever get to the point where the good people of Fernandina have had enough and demand the officials and developers be held accountable for their stupidity and incompetence?