- November 23, 2024
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After finding the developer of Hunter's Ridge in noncompliance regarding its original development order with the city of Ormond Beach, the city has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Capital Alliance and Flagler County.
On Wednesday, Oct. 25, the city held a special commission meeting to discuss the previously issued notice of noncompliance with U.S. Capital Alliance. The commission sided with
the city’s allegations that the developer violated the 1991 Hunter’s Ridge Development of Regional Impact.
The violations included that the developer failed to grant almost 300 acres of conservation lands to the city, issued neighboring Flagler County a 60-foot wide public road easement in 2017 through those conservation lands on a road known as the 40 Grade, and failed to prepare a hydroperiod restoration plan for the conservation lands as outlined in the development order.
The finding of noncompliance by the commission meant the city would stop providing utilities for new homes in the Flagler County side of Hunter’s Ridge. The Ormond Beach portion of the subdivision is built-out.
“I cannot say which particular parts of Hunter’s Ridge will be affected,” City Attorney Randy Hayes said in an email to the Observer. “The enforcement does not apply to any existing approved permits and is not intended to create an inordinate burden on existing vested rights.”
The city filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief on Friday, Oct. 27, writing that the city “has suffered damages as a result of the developer’s non-compliance and continues to suffer damages as a result of the developer’s non-compliance.”
The developer and his attorney were unaware that a lawsuit had been filed until the Observer reached out for comment.
“I think it speaks to the fact that Ormond Beach has never been open to discussion on this matter,” said Jake Beren, chief operating officer of Hunters Ridge Acquisition and Development LLC. “There has always been accusations. There has never been a nuanced conversation.”
Hayes said that the city chose to file the lawsuit because “it became clear during the presentation by Flagler County and the developer that neither of them intend to take action to remedy the public road easement violation.”
The lawsuit, Hayes said, doesn’t affect the decision by the commission to find the developer in noncompliance. It furthers the direction of the commission to take all action necessary to remedy the violations, he said.
The city of Ormond Beach has stated that it is concerned that the easement could allow Flagler County to potentially build a public road in the future through the conservation lands, which are designated as open/space conservation in Ormond Beach’s comprehensive plan.
The city fears the road could also connect the Flagler County portion of Strickland Road to State Road 40, worsening traffic for residents.
Prior to the lawsuit being filed, the Observer spoke with Beren about his takeaways from the special commission meeting. He felt that his company’s rebuttals to the city’s concerns — including Flagler County offering to draft an agreement specifically stating the county will never build a road on the 40-grade, which the city stated was a major concern — were ignored.
U.S. Capital Alliance purchased Hunter’s Ridge in 2021. A few months later, the city was exploring building wells on Flagler County land within Hunter’s Ridge to provide utilities to the homes on that side, and that’s when the issues between the developer, the city and Flagler County began.
Beren said his group has offered numerous solutions to the issue, including offering to deed over the conservation parcel, held in escrow, until the easement issue is resolved and he’s finished with mitigation work.
The hydroperiod restoration work was done as dictated in the DRI, Beren said, claiming the city has annual reports on the matter. An email from St. Johns Water Management District states that the hydroperiod restoration work was completed north of the 287-acre conservation parcel, and that the district couldn’t find information that required the work to be done within the parcel specifically.
Beren said the city’s response was that the work was never permitted by the city and therefore the developers committed a violation of the DRI.
“So it’s a gotcha,” Beren said. “That’s what [the city] is doing.”
He believes the issue goes back to the city wanting to build wells on the conservation parcel, pointing to the fact that the $20 million project was included in the city’s recently approved Capital Improvement Plan, slated to be budgeted in the 2027-2028 fiscal year.
Flagler County attorney Sean Moylan told the Observer that Hayes’ claim in the Oct. 25 meeting that discussions of wells on Flagler County land were only “informal discussions” between staff was not true.
Ormond Beach staff requested and received a special use easement onto Flagler County lands to build wells from the Flagler County County Commission in June of 2021, Moylan said, pending the city’s receipt of approval from the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Audubon Society.
“It was much more than just conversations,” he said. “And the the irony, again, is that they wanted to use 40 Grade.”
The county uses the 40 Grade easement to access its own conservation land. Moylan said at the meeting city staff showed a map of the different trails in Flagler County as alternative access points Flagler could use.
Moylan said those trails are little more than dirt paths, suitable for four-wheelers or four-wheel drive, but not for heavy maintenance vehicles or logging trucks. During the meeting on Oct. 25 and again in an interview with the Observer, Moylan said Flagler County was willing to work on a more restrictive easement that reflects the county’s land management use of the easement.
“We feel that this is something that can be worked out,” Moylan said. “If only they would engage us in conversations.”
The complaint seeks a declaratory judgment regarding the 40 Grade easement with Flagler County. The city is asking the court to affirm that the easement violates the development order with Hunter’s Ridge, the city’s comprehensive land use plan and the city’s development regulations.
Moylan said the county was surprised to find out about the lawsuit on Monday, Oct. 30. He said he had understood from the hearing that parties involved would have 60 days to work on the issues.
“We were trying to find an amicable solution for both the city and the county,” he said. “We feel that litigation is not the right avenue. It will entail the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on both sides.”
Hayes said that the 60-day timeframe was removed “to accommodate corrective action that might require more time to complete.”
Moylan said counties and municipalities regularly own easements and even land in other municipalities — Flagler County, as an example, owns land in St. Johns County, just north of Marineland, he said. Municipalities can own land in other jurisdictions, it just can’t regulate within them, he said.
“The commissioners kept saying, well, we want to protect the residents of Ormond Beach,” Moylan said. “I’m like, well, protect them from what? How does our dirt road and driving across a dirt road in the wilderness hurt the residents of Ormond Beach?”
In terms of the developer, the city is seeking injunctive relief requiring the developer to comply with the development order, stating the city “has suffered and continues to suffer irreparable harm” due to the alleged violations of the development order by the developer.
Beren said he doesn’t understand what the “irreparable harm” consists of.
“They can’t be saying that it’s irreparable because it was supposed to be given 30 years ago and the citizenry never had access to this piece of land, because they had no intention of turning it into a park,” Beren said. “They were never going to open this up to the public. They take issue with the fact that 40 Grade has an easement for public access to particular individuals.”
Additionally, he was questioned why the city would file a lawsuit when the order of noncompliance was supposed to grant him time to fix the issues.
“They told me this is a corrective action to be done, and then they did not give me sufficient time in order to correct the action,” Beren said. “They may as well have filed suit at the hearing.”
