Lawsuits regarding Beachfront Trail former easement parcel are concluded [PREMIUM]

DESIGN SUBMITTED for single-family home on the 33’ x 290’ Beachfront Trail/Deer Lake Drive parcel upon which property owner has been approved to construct the home.

By DOTTY NIST

Lawsuits filed by property owner Fred DeFrancesch, Jr., against Walton County and other parties have been closed in the wake of a settlement providing for the owner to construct a home on his Beachfront Trail parcel.

For at least a decade, DeFrancesch had been engaged in efforts to use the property, first for a temporary power pole and trailer and later for a home. It is a long, narrow, parcel, 33’ x 290’, and is located at Beachfront Trail and Deer Lake Drive in the Eastern Lake community. The county had considered the parcel to be completely encumbered by a federal patent easement prior to April 23, when the Walton County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted to abandon the easement on the property.

In 2010, the Walton County Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) had upheld a planning director’s denial of an application by Fred DeFrancesch to put a temporary trailer and T-pole on the property, and the ZBA decision had been upheld in Walton County Circuit Court in April 2012.

Coming before the ZBA in August 2016 was another appeal by the property owner concerning the T-pole permit, along with an appeal of the planning director’s denial of a single-family home building permit application for the property. The board members had voted not to hear the appeal concerning the T-pole permit and trailer. The board had also voted in favor of the planning director’s denial of the single-family home permit, after a ZBA member reasoned that the home could not be constructed on the lot unless the easement had been vacated.

This was followed by the property owner challenging the planning director’s denial, and also the ZBA decision in favor of the denial, in Walton County Circuit Court in October 2016 with two Petitions for Writ of Certiorari. These filings were accompanied by a complaint that had been brought in June 2016 against Walton County, utility companies with installations on the property, and owners of adjacent property alleged to have structures such as fences and boardwalks in place encroaching onto the DeFrancesch property.

Sought in the latter complaint were ejectment/removal of the structures, injunctive relief, damages for “continuing trespass,” and quiet title. (A quiet title action is a civil action through which a party with legal interest or ownership of property asks a court to clear “clouds” on the property title, removing legal interests of other parties in the property.)

Also named as defendant in the quiet title complaint was Deer Lake Dunes Owners Association, Inc., as a roundabout had been installed during the development during the 1990s of the Deer Lake Dunes Subdivision to the south, encroaching onto the DeFrancesch property, according to the complaint.

Also filed in January 2018 by the property owner was an additional court complaint against Walton County alleging violation of DeFrancesch’s property rights and due process violation by Walton County due to the property owner not being allowed to construct a home on the parcel, and seeking relief and damages. Sought, as well, with the 2018 complaint was a court judgment that the property had “never been burdened by a public or private right of way, easement, roadway or easement for utilities…”

In April 2019, Sidney Noyes, Walton County attorney had presented to the BCC a request to abandon the patent easement on the DeFrancesch property. The request was on behalf of Walton County.

Noyes spoke about DeFrancesch’s quiet title lawsuit, which had named a number of utility companies, including Regional Utilities, CHELCO, and Okaloosa Gas, which previously had utility installations on the property that had since been removed as a result of the lawsuit. She also reported that a default judgment had been entered against another defendant, the Deer Lake Dunes Owners Association, Inc., which had been dissolved in early 2000 and therefore could not respond.

Noyes reported that all the defendant parties in the lawsuit had either settled with the property owner or had court judgments entered against them. One of the default judgments required a “turn around” (roundabout) to be removed from the DeFrancesch property, she also noted.

The BCC approved the request for the abandonment of the easement on the DeFrancesch property.

Two months later, in June 2019, the BCC approved a mediated settlement agreement presented by Noyes applying to DeFrancesch’s quiet title lawsuit and the case filed in January 2018 that had alleged property rights and due process violations.

Terms of the agreement included: a requirement for DeFrancesch to submit revised plans for a single-family home to be constructed on the property followed by issuance of a development order/building permit by the county; acknowledgment by Walton County that the county had never improved or maintained the property; acknowledgment that the property is surrounded by private platted property and is a lot of record; acknowledgment that the county’s actions had “inordinately burdened the use of the Property” by DeFrancesch; and payment of $125,000 to the property owner for damages, including attorney’s fees and costs, along with payment by the county of cost of mediation.

The agreement also provided for dismissal by DeFrancesch of the two petitions for writ of certiorari upon the county furnishing the development order for the home and payment of the funds for damages.

The BCC approved the settlement agreement with all aye votes.

The four DeFrancesch lawsuits naming Walton County in connection with the subject parcel have now been closed as a result of the mediated settlement, with the petitions for writ of certiorari having been voluntarily dismissed in the wake of the settlement.

DeFrancesch was represented in the litigation by Pensacola attorney Lisa Minshew. Minshew did not respond to a request for comment on the matter by the Herald/Breeze.

A single-family home building permit was issued for the property/project on June 19, with setbacks and height (40 feet) shown on the construction plans stated to be in compliance with county requirements.