Cape denies accusations from Sunset

City says it is not working with VK


 

Article Courtesy of NEWS-PRESS
By MELANIE PAYNE

Published December 29, 2004

The problems at Sunset Towers could have been avoided if residents followed the rules, Cape Coral officials said Tuesday. Owners of the 35-year-old condominiums, however, countered that building officials keep changing those rules, making their homes too expensive to repair.

Differing stories about who is to blame for the impasse in rebuilding the hurricane-damaged condominium complex is fueling speculation that the city of Cape Coral is paving the way for a developer to buy the property.

City Manager Terry Stewart fumed over what he claims are inaccurate and unfounded accusations of collusion between city officials and a developer who has plans for luxury condominiums in the waterfront area.

"We're being accused of horrendous things," Stewart said.

Wisconsin-based VK Development, which Sunset Towers residents accuse of coveting their property, has substantial holdings in the Cape. An agent said they weren't actively pursuing the property. VK has, however, during the past two years acquired five Sunset Towers units and all of the surrounding properties with the exception of one — which VK is currently negotiating for — and a park that belongs to the city.

Still, Stewart said, the city has nothing to do with VK and its plans for development in Cape Coral and has no plans for the area around the Sunset Towers. And the city is certainly not favoring the developer over the residents of Sunset Towers, he said.

"I'd be as furious as they are" if he'd been out of his home for four months and saw no progress toward a resolution, Stewart said. "The thing I disagree about is who they should be angry with."

The management group and the engineer are to blame — not the city, he said.

But Cape Coral building official Ben Cotroneo has the final say, and he is requiring unanticipated repairs and upgrades that have stalled the rebuilding process, said condominium association President Dorothy Rea and Lewis Midlam, president of LCM Engineering Inc., the association's consultant.

"They came back with upgrades they would require us to do regardless of the 50 percent," Midlam said.

If the repair on a hurricane damaged building is 50 percent or more of the value, the entire building has to conform to current building codes and minimum flood elevations.

Cotroneo said the numbers he saw for rebuilding the towers were "right at or just about 50 percent."

He added, however, "that doesn't count certain items they'll have to do." When asked what those items were, and whether they were new codes, Cotroneo said that he would let them know by Jan. 7, the next meeting of the condo association.

Rea said that they can't submit final numbers until they know what those items are and to say that it is the condo association's fault or the engineer's fault isn't true — Cotroneo needs to let them know what extra things they need to do.

Midlam said that Cotroneo told him that the condos would need to add a sprinkler system, bring the insulation up to current energy code and install a different fire alarm system, among other things that he would outline in a letter.

State building codes give Cotroneo alone the authority to require that repairs meet new codes even if the building repairs are less than 50 percent, Stewart said. However, he couldn't say why new items — such as a fire sprinkler system and energy efficient insulation — are needed if they weren't in the original building.

Florida officials confirmed that local building officials do have the latitude to be more stringent than the state code. However, "It should be written in an ordinance; they shouldn't just use their discretion," said Leroy Thompson, of the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

The seemingly arbitrary nature of the building official's authority has fueled Sunset Towers residents' belief that the city is conspiring with developers to move them out. And this is not the first time they have had reason to be suspicious.

Last year, Sunset Towers homeowners fought a heated battle to stay outside of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency area. The CRA is developing the downtown Cape and changing codes and other rules for land within its 400-acre boundaries. But many of the residents around Bimini Basin complained that if the city swallowed them into the CRA, it would make it easier for the city to condemn their property for private development.

City officials said they have no plans to use condemnation to take anyone's property in the city. However, those same leaders lobbied hard for a state bill that would have made it easier for cities to condemn land, for a fair price, then turn around and sell it to developers. That bill was pulled after outraged residents across Florida lambasted their legislators.