Council wrote the equation for the Three Fishermen lawsuit
To the editor:
Referring to the Three Fishermen, Mayor Gunter said at a recent council meeting, “This is a legal case, and it has to go through the process. An administrative law judge is the best person to weigh in independently and make a decision. Take us out of the equation.”
Redfish Pointe illustrates the flaw in this argument.
The Redfish Point property owner is applying for an amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan to allow for development. In the past, if a city council allowed such amendments, citizens could take legal action to stop what they considered to be harmful development. But a law passed in 2023, SB 540, the “Sprawl Law,” changed this legal process.
At the time, Friends of the Everglades wrote SB 540 “will effectively end citizen challenges to comprehensive plan amendments by saddling those who challenge an amendment and lose with the other side’s legal fees… It will embolden developers to propose more environmentally perilous projects.”
SB 540 is a deplorable intimidation tactic meant to discourage citizen challenges to development no matter how environmentally unsound or harmful to communities. Our state legislators knew regular folks and organizations do not have the financial resources that developers do. Our legislature purposely tilted the playing field against citizens and citizen groups.
If our city council decides to amend the city’s comprehensive plan, there will be little our community could do to stop the destruction of these wetlands and the consequences it will have on hundreds of Cape Coral families. This is why the council must deny the application to amend our city comprehensive plan.
Regarding the Three Fishermen, after losing the first court case about the environmentally harmful removal of the Chiquita Lock, our city council hired a new law firm, and then, like SB 540, threatened plaintiffs with legal fees should the city prevail in its appeal of the court’s decision. Like SB 540, it was an unscrupulous intimidation tactic intended to snuff out citizen pushback.
Respectfully, the city council does not now get to distance itself from a process it created. It does not get to be “taken out of the equation.” The financial hardship it wreaks upon these citizens lies with the council, not a judge.
Our city council can make things right by stopping the legal process immediately, pay what it owes this law firm, and let the fishermen, who were fighting to protect our waters, off the hook.
“Be thankful you don’t live in this Florida city, which is trying to punish its own citizens,” journalist Craig Pittman recently wrote. Tell the council to prove him wrong.
Joseph Bonasia
Cape Coral