Lake Lincoln lawsuit looms

Among the neatly trimmed bushes and landscaping on the west side of Tara’s entrance, a yellow sign now reads, “10.33 Acres For Sale.”

It’s an advertisement for property that currently can’t be commercially developed.

A judge soon will decide any changes in its fate.

Attorneys for Manatee County and for Lake Lincoln LLC, developer of the Tara community, will meet in the courtroom in June in hopes of ending a seven-year, property-rights dispute.

In October 2010, Manatee County denied Lake Lincoln’s request to commercially develop the 10.33-acre property at the southwest corner of Tara Boulevard and State Road 70. Lake Lincoln wanted to change zoning from planned development residential to planned development commercial.

Hundreds of Tara residents, wearing red shirts and filling the County Commission chambers beyond overflowing, attended the meeting to oppose the project primarily because of safety concerns about accessing the property along with community aesthetics.

Those worries remain.

“We’re just cheering the county on,” said John Leone, who was part of the original opposition efforts and now serves as president of Tara’s master homeowners association. “There’s not much else we can do.”

Lake Lincoln believes its development rights for the property were stripped away. It now will have to prove its case in court.

“We believe all of the economic or private economic use has been taken from the property,” said Bill Moore, Lake Lincoln’s attorney. “That property is a 10.3-acre parcel that’s left to be developed. Since all of that has been taken and the county has said there isn’t any other private use to be made of it, we think that’s a taking.

“This case is unusual in that the county very seldom takes all the private economic use rights away from a property,” he said. “It’s not absolutely unique, but it’s certainly unusual.”

The Manatee County Attorney’s Office declined comment.

Commissioners’ actions over the years have cemented their support for their 2010 decision, refusing to accept offers by Lake Lincoln for the county to pay a minimum of $1.8 million to avoid litigation. At the original public hearing, the commission had approved a land-use matrix that supposedly gave Lake Lincoln a way to commercially development a larger portion of its property east of Tara Boulevard.

A jury will not be seated for the June trial. Judge Diana Mooreland will determine whether the county’s 2010 action destroyed Lake Lincoln’s rights to use and develop the land economically, amounting to what is called a “taking.”

If the judge rules Manatee County did not take Lake Lincoln’s land, the case will be over, subject to an appeal. If the judge favors Lake Lincoln, however, the case then will go to a jury trial to determine how much Manatee County must pay Lake Lincoln as compensation.

John Agnelli, vice president of Lake Lincoln, said the property in question is virtually unsellable at this time and Lake Lincoln has not set a price for the property, but the for-sale sign on the land is a reminder of what he hopes will be a favorable outcome for development.

“We want to keep the interest going on the property,” he said. “It’s not like anyone is going to buy it. Anybody who looks at it, would know its use is subject to the county lawsuit.”