Phil Ammann
An Appeals Court ruled Thursday that the City of Jacksonville does not have to pay owners of a riverfront lot who claim the construction of a fire station lowered the property value.
The next stop for the property-rights case could be the Florida Supreme Court.
In a 9-5 decision, the 1st District Court of Appeal decided the property owners, R. Lee and Christy Smith were not owed compensation under the Private Property Rights Protection Act named after Bert Harris, Jr.
Under that law, property owners are entitled to compensation for lost value, when actions by government agencies “inordinately burdened” the property.
In 2005, the Smiths bought an undeveloped riverfront lot next to a parcel rezoned by Jacksonville rezoned for the construction of a 13,000-square-foot fire station.
The Smiths filed suit under the Act, claiming the fire station noise, light and vehicle traffic had substantially reduced the value of their property, dropping the lot’s value by $470,000 and making it unsuitable as a site for luxury homes.
The Appeals Court overturned the decision of a Duval County circuit judge, who sided with the Smiths. Judge James Wolf, writing the majority opinion, said the circuit judge’s ruling “broadens the scope of the Harris Act far beyond its intended purpose and has the potential to open the floodgates for claims under the act against state, regional, and local governmental entities.”
Dissenting opinions focused on the issue of Jacksonville’s rezoning without giving sufficient notice to the property owners.
“There is no question that appellant’s … regulatory action of rezoning the property without notice to appellees … more importantly, constructing the massive fire station on the rezoned property unfairly affected appellees’ adjoining real property by decimating its value,” said the dissent penned by Judge Ronald Swanson.
Justices then certified the issue as one of “great public importance” urging the state Supreme Court to take up the case.
