By DOTTY NIST
The First District Court of Appeal has found that an order granting a temporary injunction to Sandestin Investments failed to meet necessary criteria or set forth findings supporting the criteria.
The order had been issued by Judge Kelvin C. Wells in Walton County Circuit Court on May 9. It had been to grant Sandestin Investments a temporary injunction from the Walton County Board of County Commissioners’ (BCC) March 11 decision not to accept building permit applications submitted in connection with the Osprey Point development. This is a 77-unit residential development planned for Sandestin Resort.
The decision had been due to the BCC’s finding that Sandestin was not in compliance with its development of regional impact (DRI) development order.
The portion of Florida Statutes applying to DRIs states that local governments are not to issue permits or approvals or provide any extensions of service to developers who fail to act in substantial compliance with DRI development orders.
Sandestin Resort developer Sandestin Investments had maintained that, due to the seasonal nature of sales of properties such as Osprey Point, lost sales resulting from the county’s failure to process the applications would “result in irreparable harm in the form of Project delay costs, interest and lost profits.”
When Judge Wells granted Sandestin Investments’ temporary injunction on May 9, he had ordered that the county accept the building permit applications for Osprey Point and process the applications within 10 days, whether approved or denied. Walton County appealed the May 9 trial court order to the First District Court of Appeal.
On Aug. 6, three months after Judge Wells granted Sandestin Investments’ temporary injunction, he found Walton County in contempt of his court order because the county still had not processed the building permit applications for Osprey Point.
On Aug. 19, Walton County issued a denial of the building permit applications due to the BCC finding that that the Sandestin DRI was not in substantial compliance.
On Oct. 8, Judge Wells denied a motion by Walton County to vacate the order of contempt and granted Sandestin Investments’ motion to vacate a stay on the enforcement of the injunction that he had granted.
“Balancing the equities between the parties, Plaintiff (Sandestin Investments) will continue to suffer harm if the stay is not vacated,” Judge Wells wrote.
However, the First District Court of Appeal opinion filed on Oct. 14 found that the May 9 order in Walton Count Circuit Court had “failed to address any of the four criteria necessary for the issuance of an injunction and failed to set forth any factual findings in support of the required criteria.”
The four criteria referenced were, “(1) the likelihood of irreparable harm; (2) the unavailability of an adequate remedy at law; (3) substantial likelihood of success on the merits; and (4) considerations of public interest.”
The appeals court directed the trial court to “either enter an order that satisfies all the requirements for entry of a temporary injunction or, if appropriate, an order denying the injunction.”
Sandestin Investments is pursuing other litigation in Walton County Circuit Court seeking that the court negate the BCC’s March 11 action regarding building permits.
