BCC to bill Sandestin for attorney's fees

For more than four years, Allen Osborne has represented the Greater Driftwood Estates Homeowners Association before the Walton County Board of County Commissioners, attempting to resolve drainage and road access problems in the community but to no avail, until the night of Sept. 9.

In a previous BCC meeting the commissioners chose to allow the developers an additional 45 days to complete a list of items to bring the development into compliance with the approved Development of Regional Impact plan.

"They couldn't show any progress except some drawing dated a day before the meeting," said Osborne.

Because of the lack of progress, Osborne offered the county two options to resolve the issues. First, he requested the board to begin sending the county's attorney fees, related to the abandonment of Driftwood Drive, to Sandestin Gulf and Beach Resort.

"County money and engineers shouldn't be spent to fix this problem," said Osborne. "I want money spent on good things, like parks, not to prop up big business."

Commissioner Cindy Meadows made a motion to approve sending attorney fees to Sandestin and it was quickly passed, to the cheers of the audience.

"At some point we need to fish and cut bait," said Meadows. "They have no motivation to solve the problems."

Secondly, Osborne requested the county to freely join him in a suit against Intrawest, Olson Associates, Adams Homes and David Campbell Engineering.

Meadows then offered a motion to join the suit but County Attorney Mike Burke recommended allowing legal review of the suit before taking any action. His advice was heeded by the board and the motion died.

In two weeks, after review by legal counsel, the BCC will readdress joining Osborne's suit.

"If they do what they have to, then we can always drop the lawsuit," said Meadows.

After the meeting, Osborne savored the moment and felt as if he had been given "a hugh victory."

"It feels good," said Osborne. "I was pleasantly surprised to see the county finally realize that the only way to get this fixed is with this action."

If the county joins Osborne in his suit, it will seek damages on DRI compliance from the original developers of Driftwood. The county will not be seeking punitive damages and Osborne said the suit would be amended to reflect that.

County Administrator Ronnie Bell has already made contact with Osborne to arrange a sit down between Bell, Osborne and Interim County Attorney Mike Burke.

"If you stand on the solid rock of fact, nobody can kick you off it, but you have to be willing to stay the course," said Osborne.

BACKGROUND

Driftwood Estates, on the northern most section of Four Mile Point beyond Mack Bayou Road, was originally part of the Sandestin DRI.

In two separate court filings, residents at Driftwood say because stormwater plans were not followed, their neighborhood floods during periods of hard rain. After years of asking county officials to fix the situation, they took their complaints to the courthouse and then to Division of Community Planning at the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

In May 2007, Charles Gauthier, director of DCA's Division of Community Planning, to Walton County Planning Director Pat Blackshear. The letter calls into question adherence to the Sandestin DRI, which was originally approved on Oct. 19, 1976, and modified in 1984. It also questions the existing storm water management plan and the decision by the county to abandon the road connecting their community to Sandestin.

If the issues brought up by the DCA are shown to be valid, the Department of Community Affairs has the authority to issue an administrative order to stop further development at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort and Driftwood Estates.

The county first looked into citizens' complaints of stormwater runoff in 2005.

On May 17, 2005, then county engineer Dan Arner sent a memo to several county officials, including county administrator Ronnie Bell, Commissioner Cindy Meadows, Blackshear and then county attorney David Hallman. The memo detailed a meeting with a representative from Northtip Development, which was developing the project, at Driftwood over drainage and flooding problems.

In the memo, Arner said both Rick Olsen, the managing member of Northtip, and Adams Homes, the builder of record at Driftwood, were given notice to present a written plan to correct the existing drainage system along with six other points all the parties had agreed to.

On May 24, 2005, the Board of County Commission voted to stop issuing building permits in Driftwood, pending resolution of the concurrency and drainage issues.

In an e-mail the same day, county attorney Hallman wrote to Blackshear: "I recommend that Planning and Public Works investigate whether there are in fact violations of law, ordinance, LDC, DRI, Comp Plan, drainage plans, etc., and make a detailed report to me if there is a law/ordinance violation. We are going to be in court ASAP on this puppy. We will either be on the offense or the defense and I prefer the offense."

On Oct. 11, 2005, Northtip signed an agreement with Walton County and agreed to pay $60,000 "as contribution to improvements to drainage and roadways in the Driftwood Estates subdivision." Adams Homes signed a similar agreement.

On Jan. 24, 2006, the Greater Driftwood Estates Homeowners' Association tendered a formal inquiry to county officials regarding the 1996 blockage of Driftwood Drive, the road abandoned by the county to Sandestin in 1988.

According to Layne Smith of Smith, Brooks & Masterson of  Tallahassee, attorney for the homeowner association, while the road and the flooding are two separate issues, they are related in that neither was done in compliance with the developmental orders in effect at the time and are intrinsically linked.

In a writ of mandamus filed by Greater Driftwood Estates Homeowners' Association and Samuel "Alan" Osborne in September 2006, residents claim the 1988 agreement to abandon the 60-foot right-of-way used as a road into and out of Driftwood was invalid.

"It was made six days before the BCC met on the issue," said Osborne, who is spearheading the residents' efforts.

County records show an agreement was reached on May 4, 1988, but was not voted on by the commission until May 10.

The residents also claim the agreement is null because they were not party to the discussions or agreement.

"It was our property being affected," said Osborne. "The board of county commissioners said all the parties should work out an agreement but we weren't part of it."

A wall was built across the right of way in 1996 physically separating Driftwood Estates and Sandestin. In 1998, the wall was concreted in place.

This left only one entrance and exit for Driftwood Estates, a fact residents say is unacceptable, both under the Sandestin DRI and as a public safety issue.

"We know the residents have issues with drainage," Brannon said in an interview with The Sun last year. "And, we are committed to find a solution and get them some relief."

He believes the road issue, however, will have to be worked out between Sandestin and Driftwood residents, "unless it is a question of public safety."

Brannon said resolving the issues at Driftwood have been a learning curve for county officials and they hope not to repeat any missteps that may have occurred in the handling of it by their predecessors.

One thing on which Brannon and the residents agree is the complexity of the issues because of the age of the DRI and the voluminous amount of paperwork connected with 31 years of changes at Sandestin.

Brannon also agrees that what the residents were told "was going to happen and what actually was done" were different.

The inability to resolve who did what when and find a livable solution, is part of what has made Osborne so dogged in his attempts to get the county to correct the problems in his neighborhood.

"You (government officials) can't pick and choose the rules you want to abide by," said Osborne. "We just want done what we were told was going to be done in the beginning - what was approved to be done."

"It's like hitting a moving target," said Smith, the attorney for the homeowners. "They've had so many different versions of what is going to happen."

Osborne said he has spent about $50,000 of his own money and the homeowners association another $50,000. He calculates he has spent almost 1,800 hours sifting through documents, appearing before the county commission and traveling to Tallahassee.

"I went to Tallahassee seven times," said Osborne, "trying to get someone to listen to me."

The county-ordered engineering study was completed earlier this year. It got the commission's OK, but none of the recommended work has be let for bid.

According to Brannon, the first phase of the work is expected to cost more than $900,000, money that could be difficult to come by.

If the Legislature in its special session later this month does what it says it's going to do and revamps the ad valorem tax system, Brannon said, "We could be looking at a $17 million (local) tax loss."

"I am confident we will find a resolution," said Brannon, suggesting the project may have to be completed in two or more stages and in a less expensive manner.