City Attorney Becky Vose opened the March 19, 2018 Brooksville City Council meeting segment describing the hand-delivered submission of a proposal by GreenPointe Holdings, which is the property management company for Southern Hills Plantation (SHP). Vose recommended that the attorneys for Southern Hill and GreenPointe be heard, and she be directed to negotiate a binding agreement to complete and repair the water system in Phase 3 at Southern Hills, without the enacting of a moratorium at this time.
The intended Emergency Ordinance 886 states in part, “Due to the lack of sufficient water pressure/fire flow for this area, the Florida Fire Code provides that construction is not to be commenced, and new occupancy shall not be permitted. Therefore, it appears that a moratorium on the issuance of development orders, (the most common of which is a building permit), is appropriate until adequate water pressure/fire flow is achieved.”
Clearwater Attorney Donna Feldman represents the SHP Group, the owner of the majority of Southern Hills undeveloped properties. Feldman began by saying her firm is happy to work with the city, and has been attempting to do so for over a year. She also stated that the Emergency Ordinance is invalid due to improper service, saying that she had learned about it two days prior to the meeting, when reviewing the agenda.
“We are willing to enter into a document, which would constitute an amendment to the existing amendment and restated development agreement.” Feldman said it is best to enter into a proposal that works. There are other water issues in Southern Hills. Because there is only a single water source, and lack of a “looped system,” a recent outage affected the entire subdivision until the water line was completely repaired. If the water system had been looped, water service may not have been interrupted at all. GreenPointe’s proposal addresses this issue.
However, Feldman said, “We will not do it under the threat of litigation or … a potential moratorium brought later.” She said that recently, a meeting was held in January, with Brooksville staff to discuss the intention of going forth with a productive solution, but was met with the ordinance for the moratorium.
Cliff Manuel, President of Coastal Engineering gave a detailed account of the water problems to the council. The water pressure in what is officially called Phase 3-A-1 has been too low to sustain fire suppression, and has caused difficulties for residents inside homes in that area. The current plan is to install a “booster,” which was installed originally, but will be moved to a better location. The remedies are proposed to be completed in 150 days. The budget already exists, and is not expected to cost the city anything.
Vose’s recommendation to the council is that she draft a regular ordinance for the moratorium, which will not go into effect unless a new agreement is breached.
Council Member Natalie Kahler said of the recommendation, and GreenPointe’s position on the moratorium, “People need water, they need fire suppression … let’s get this done.” Kahler added that there was no reason to believe that the representatives were not being honest, which sparked a few minutes of contention between some of the council members and Feldman, who came to the podium several times to contest topics of notifications, communications and the stalling of the project for over two years, adamant that they are not in breach of the existing agreement.
The council voted on two motions; the first to rescind litigation for the unfinished construction, and the second; to draft an amendment to the development agreement, to be approved within the next two weeks. Council Member Joe Bernardini was the only one opposed to rescinding litigation against GreenPointe. All council members were in favor of the amended agreement.