Lawsuits were filed against the City of Lake Worth involving our Champion Tree where the Plaintiff sought to develop three parcels of property located at 315 N A Street, 1716 3rd Ave N, and 1731 4th Ave N in the City of Lake Worth. The developers wanted to fell this tree. In 2004 a dispute arose over our champion tree located on the Property. The Plaintiffs filed their first lawsuit in April 2008 challenging the constitutionality of the 2005 Champion Tree ordinance. In March 2009, The Townhomes of Pineapple Ridge at Lake Worth filed a claim with the City alleging damages of $1.5M under the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act (section 70.001, Florida Statutes (the “Harris Act”). The City for various legal reasons declined to respond to the Harris Act claim and the Plaintiffs filed the second lawsuit under the Harris Act in February 2012.
ORDER ON JOINT MOTION TO CANCEL SUMMARY JUDGMENT HEARING AND REMOVE CASE FROM TRIAL DOCKET IS GRANTED. T BARKDULL DTD 2/26/15
The suits are finally being settled and the item is on the Consent Agenda Tuesday night. The city has incurred $64,000 in legal fees to date and has agreed to pay $175,000 to the Plantiffs in order to protect the tree if the following occurs--The parties file a joint motion to stay both lawsuits; - The parties agree on a certified arborist to sympathetically prune the ficus tree; - The parties agree on a conservation easement area to protect and provide public observation of the tree and to allow for development of the surrounding property (consistent with existing zoning); - The parties prepare a conservation easement agreement to protect the tree and address future issues affecting the tree and the surrounding property; and, - Once the conservation easement agreement is approved by the parties, the City pays the Plaintiffs $175,000 and the Plaintiffs dismiss both lawsuits.
7 comments:
it is annoying when developers come into our city and want to do anything they please on private property like building a 6 story hotel addition. There are laws and ordinances. I am happy this tree has been saved.
I am happy this tree has been saved as well. WE need to be better stewards of our fragile earth. Developers just get away with too much. And yet again the City is paying out to developers.
Great. So this non-native, invasive specie weed has cost us over $200K to "save".
Meanwhile, in South America, thousands of acres of rain forest are being bulldozed daily, but we spent years and taxpayer dollars to save this one tree.
Why didn't the city just buy the property from the owner and make it a park? Forcing private property owners to keep a tree epublic is just wrong.
We have laws and ordinances to protect us from greedy developers. The city has NO money to buy up private property to keep it out of the hands of some developer who want to go around those ordinances. Developers want to crap all over us.
We went out and did a referendum on heights in our downtown. What do developers like Hudson Holdings want to do? Build higher anyway. What did the commission do? They did NOT honor the vote of 57% wanting a low rise downtown or 45 feet.
It's a constant battle in this city...even winning an election doesn't protect us.
The tree is not a weed anony at 12:08 but a non-native tree.
The tree is not a weed anony at 12:08 but a non-native tree.
That's like saying an undocumented alien.
Let's call it what it is, an illegal tree that has no right to be here!
Chop it down!
Can trees have rights? :) It is not illegal and has a right to live. We just aren't allowed to plant any more of them. Our laws say so. We should not be allowed to cut down aged trees willy nilly just because someone doesn't want it or it's in their way.
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