City Commission to hold private meeting

City Clerk Alison Ratkovic notified Historic City News that a special meeting of the St Augustine City Commission will convene at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, April 1 in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, for the purpose of discussing litigation in the matter of Wendler vs City of St Augustine — the discussion during the meeting will not be open to the public.

City Attorney Ronald W. Brown has called the special meeting to request the advice of the City Commission regarding the litigation and judgment; recently reversed, in favor of the Wendlers, by the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal.

Once the special meeting is called to order, the commissioners will meet, in private, under a procedure known as a “shade meeting”. Attendance during the meeting shall be limited to the City Commission, the City Manager, the City Attorney, the Assistant City Attorney and a certified court reporter.

Historic City News was first to report the reversal after the District Court rendered its opinion on March 15th. The City won a St Johns County Circuit Court dismissal of Wendler’s claim for damages under the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act, on arguments that the Wendlers waited too long to file their claim — the District Court disagreed; and reversed.

Between 1998 and 2006, the Wendlers purchased eight parcels in St. Augustine; including seven structures built between 1910 and 1930 located in a National Register of Historic Places District. The parcels are subject to city ordinance, section 28-89, City of St Augustine Municipal Code, which regulates the demolition or relocation of certain “historic structures” — the Wendlers say that they were aware of the ordinance at the time they purchased the property.

But, in 2002, the City revised the ordinance by expanding the list of regulated structures to include homes at least 50 years old. The amendment also extended the waiting period for a demolition permit from six months to one year. In 2005, the City again amended the ordinance, authorizing the City’s Historic Architectural Review Board to deny demolition or relocation requests indefinitely for three types of structures, including those considered “contributing property to a National Register of Historic Places District”.

On December 5, 2007, St Augustine’s Historic Architectural Review Board first applied the twice-amended ordinance to the Wendler property and denied demolition permits to the Wendlers, who want to build a boutique hotel on their property. Because of the city’s refusal to grant the demolition permits, the Wendlers are seeking damages.