A final resolution to the Palmer Trinity litigation? What are the terms?

The Village has posted the August 21, 2013, counter-offer letter from the Palmer Trinity School (PTS).  CLICK HERE to view this letter. I will offer more insight into the contents of this offer letter soon. The settlement numbers appear much better than the prior demand (and demands are always a starting point and sometimes the first numbers are to shock) of $12 - 13 Million.

The numbers appear to be $200,000.00 in cash to PTS with $600,000.00 in village credits against permit fees - a net total of $800,000.00 to PTS.

But there is more. It appears that something else was traded for money - a re-visitation of the conditions placed upon the school. The modifications appear to now allow for the following:

• Lighted ball fields
• Reduction in buffer
• No berms built in the buffer area
• Allowing a single path through the buffer.
• Removing traffic conditions (this is how I read it)
• Material changes to the sidewalk conditions
• Signage
• No reporting to the Village of student enrollment numbers.
• Removal of conditions/restrictions on the number of events.
• Future traffic studies are limited
• No community discussion group.

I cannot place a value of these released covenants at the present time.

It is obvious that Mayor Stanczyk overplayed her hand. Please review my prior post of October 8, 2012:
Update on Palmer litigation. The story of hubris and a very missed opportunity to settle from a position of strength.

I discussed in that post how the Palmer story could have ended during the period of June 12, up to July 3, 2012, after Palmetto Bay did so well at oral argument.  The background is that Palmer thought they lost – and bad, after participating in Oral Argument before the Third District Court of Appeal and there was palpable fear that they would have to live with no expansion, staying at 600 students.

This would have been a good time to settle and end all litigation, past, present and future.  The zoning case could have been settled for anywhere from 600, to 900, to 1,150 students, but more importantly, focusing on the big picture, conditioned upon Palmer dismissing its civil rights claims.

Those are not the facts we are living with today.  Now I want to see how this all plays out in the upcoming village council meeting. We could be seeing this chapter end for the good of Palmetto Bay.