- November 22, 2024
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The Flagler County government has filed for mediation in a lawsuit brought against the county by the government of Ormond Beach about an easement in Hunter's Ridge.
"Hopefully, we can resolve this without both publics — both publics — paying the freight for litigation," Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed told the County Commission on Dec. 4 as he explained the latest developments in the case.
Ormond filed suit against Flagler County and Hunter's Ridge developer U.S. Capital Alliance on Oct. 27, saying that the developer's granting of a 60-foot-wide road easement to Flagler County violated the Hunter's Ridge development agreement.
The dirt road on that easement passes through 200-300 acres of land in Ormond Beach that is owned by the developer. That land should have been conveyed from the developer to the city government for conservation under the terms of the Hunter's Ridge development agreement, but never was, according to the Ormond Beach city government.
Hadeed said Flagler County wanted the easement so it could access 2,000 acres of Flagler County conservation land for management work and fight illegal incursions. There is no other access to that property.
"We were facing problems of illegal logging, illegal hunting, removal of dirt from the area, uncontrolled access to the area, because there were no controls to keep people out," he said.
But the county faced a catch-22, Hadeed said: Ormond said the county needed to get the easement from the city of Ormond Beach, but the city of Ormond Beach didn't own the land when the county needed the access easement. So the county got the easement from the developer, the then-owner. If the county had waited to get an easement from the city government, Hadeed said, the county still wouldn't have access to its own conservation parcel today.
Hadeed said that Flagler County had notified Ormond Beach about the access easement.
"While it may have seemed to them that it was a snub of some sort, it wasn't. We had to do it by necessity, and we notified them, and it was very public," he said.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct an explanation of Flagler County's access needs.
