L'Ambiance, Sanctuary dismiss Key Club de novo challenge

The L’Ambiance and Sanctuary condominium associations filed voluntary motions of dismissal from the de novo challenge of the town’s approval of the Longboat Key Club and Resort’s proposed $400 million expansion plan. The motions leave the Islandside Property Owners Coalition (IPOC) as the sole plaintiff in the case.

Attorney Robert Lincoln, who represents IPOC and the associations, said that the dismissals would simplify the case.

“The associations aren’t necessary,” Lincoln said. “Especially after what happened with the certiorari case, we’re certain that we can move forward with IPOC.”

Lincoln was referring to the Key Club’s motion to dismiss the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by IPOC and the associations. Judge Charles Roberts denied that motion, in which Key Club attorneys argued that IPOC owns no property and was not a real party of interest and that the condominium associations did not participate in the quasi-judicial hearings leading up to the project’s approval. Lincoln argued that the associations participated with IPOC as their representative.

Key Club Associates attorney John Patterson said that the condominium associations’ dismissals were unlikely to immediately affect the litigation of the case but that the dismissal raises standing issues. He said that the condominium associations, which are non-profit organizations, own deeded property, unlike IPOC, which owns no property. Patterson said that even if IPOC does have standing, the group’s members are associations — associations that he argues do not have the right to serve as advocacy groups, either directly or through IPOC.

Patterson said that the Key Club will file a motion to compel IPOC to reveal where its funding comes from on the theory that the associations are committing an improper act by funding IPOC. But Lincoln said that he would oppose that motion.

“Florida case law is clear on the fact that they don’t get to know that information,” Lincoln said, citing the case of the city of Maitland vs. Matthews, in which a judge ruled that disclosure of the names of residents, who contributed to a litigation fund used to oppose the construction of a seven-story building, which they claimed was out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood, would “create a chilling effect on their rights to organize and associate” and “would subject them to possible intimidation or coercion.”

A discovery hearing in the de novo challenge will take place at 9 a.m. Friday, Dec. 16 before Judge Lee E. Haworth at the Lynn N. Silvertooth Judicial Center.