League of Women Voters to host Bert Harris Act speaker
Patty Duncan thinks more people should know about the Bert Harris Act.
Next month the League of Women Voters of Lee County Florida, for which Duncan is the director of environment, will host an educational/environmental meeting for anyone who wants to learn more about the Private Property Protection Act.
Under the Bert Harris Act, enacted in 1995, if a landowner can demonstrate that a governmental action “inordinately burdens” their property, they are entitled to seek some form of compensation, if a new regulation unfairly affects their property.
Duncan, who says she’s “been beating the drum for a number of years” about the Bert Harris Act and development in Lee County, sees it come up time and time again when she speaks before the Lee County Board of Commissioners against development in the Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource (DR/GR) area.
Duncan thought of the idea for the 9 to 11 a.m. Jan. 5 meeting after reading an article last year by Dr. Frank Alcock.
Alcock, who is a former director of the Marine Policy Institute at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, said he’ll probably talk for 30 minutes and then take questions. Attendees will hear an overview of the law’s history since the 1990s; learn what it says and how it’s used.
“I’ll also talk about any concerns I have as far as the implications go of invoking the Bert Harris Act,” Alcock said. “It can directly or indirectly impact the value of property.”
For example, in 2016, more than 50 landowners filed notices of intent to make Bert Harris claims after disagreeing with the direction of the Pine Island development plan. The lawsuit was initially filed against Lee County in 2009. The plaintiffs, Cammilot Partners, LLC, maintained that the adoption of Coastal Rural regulations in 2003 inordinately burdened their property.
In 2014, the court ruled against the county and found it liable under the Bert Harris Act for damages resulting from the Coastal Rural regulations. Prior to the trial on damages, the County reached a $250,000 settlement with the plaintiffs. In 2015, the county attorney recommended amending the original Pine Island Plan to avoid having to pay more in potential legal fees.
What stood out to Duncan in Alcock’s 2017 article was that the associate professor of political science at New College of Florida was introducing his students to the Act.
“And I thought ‘Wow, this is the first time I have heard of something like this,'” she said. “Because I’ve been trying to get people to understand that Bert Harris is one of the reasons we’re losing environmentally sensitive areas.”
Alcock remembers the article saying, “Something like it could have a chilling effect on plans and local municipalities’ willingness to do things.”
One example he cited during a phone interview was post disaster ecological development plans regarding sea level rise.
“There are certain areas that might be out on the keys that cost a good amount of money to build in-electricity, goods and services, etc.,” he said. “Overtime if they have a Category four or five hurricane that wipes out the area, they’ll think long and hard about where to build.”
But local planning can sometimes get tricky.
Duncan used the pending applications for the Troyer and Old Corkscrew mine proposals as an example.
Rejected several years ago, the Troyer Brothers recently submitted a new application after the company won a lawsuit against the county and overturned the previous rejection.
“So, decisions by various counties and municipalities are thrown out in lawsuits brought by developers and other land holding companies,” Duncan said. “And their arguments against the decision-makers are based on the Bert Harris Act.”
Duncan has been following the Old Corkscrew Plantation lawsuit. Though she wanted to further research a new article published on the subject, Duncan said, “I can venture a determined opinion that the lawsuit was based on the Bert Harris Act.”
When the old golf club acreage was up before the Cape Coral City Council, Duncan says those council members were often quoted as saying, “We have to go along with the land owner’s request for changes to our zoning. Otherwise, we will be sued.”
Duncan says the Bert Harris Act is written in such a way that if someone buys a particular piece of property with the expectation they will get a return on their investment; counties cannot then change that designation to prevent a development from potentially coming in there because investors have a reasonable expectation for a return on investment.
In 2016 to 2017, Duncan says Lee County removed thousands of acres in the Density Reduction Groundwater Resource area (DR/GR) along Corkscrew Road.
The DR/GR formed in 1990 to safeguard the area’s water supply and limit the Lee County’s population capacity.
“These acres, which were to be preserved for future water resources, are lost forever to development,” Duncan said. “This loss is a result of fear within our elected officials that their decisions against such development could result in thousands of dollars of taxpayer money being tied up in court. And probably losing the lawsuit anyway.”