Wendler threatens City with $3.4 million lawsuit

City Attorney Ron Brown has announced to Historic City News local reporters that Donna Wendler, who planned to demolish seven homes along King and Oviedo streets, now plans to sue the City of St. Augustine for $3.4 million in damages.

Wendler intended to build a boutique hotel on the site, however, she was denied.

“They’re past the point of arguing the validity of the ordinance” under which the plan was denied, Brown said. “A judge has already upheld us on that.”

However City Attorney Ron Brown said he’ll clarify with Wendler’s attorneys whether they are seeking a magistrate hearing or court action under the Bert Harris Act for lost revenue.

The 1995 Legislature enacted the “Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act.” The act provides, in part, that when a specific action of a governmental entity has inordinately burdened an existing use of real property or a vested right to a specific use of real property, the property owner of that real property is entitled to relief that may include compensation for the actual loss to the fair market value of the property caused by the action of government, as provided in the statute.

By definition, an action of a governmental entity has inordinately burdened the property owner if it directly restricted or limited the use of real property such that the property owner is permanently unable to attain the reasonable, investment-backed expectation for the existing use of the real property or a vested right to a specific use of the real property with respect to the real property as a whole.

The property owner is likewise inordinately burdened if they are left with existing or vested uses that are unreasonable such that the property owner bears permanently a disproportionate share of a burden imposed for the good of the public, which in fairness should be borne by the public at large.

Photo credits: © 2010 Historic City News photographer Kerry McGuire