A rendering of the four-story Boca Beach House duplex Azure Development LLC wants to build on oceanfront land it owns in Boca Raton. Photo: Azure Development

Boca Raton officials were biased and trampled on a developer's due-process rights when they denied a permit to build a sprawling duplex on oceanfront land, a new lawsuit claims.

Azure Development LLC, a Delray Beach-based luxury home developer, asked permission to build a 14,270-square-foot, four-story duplex on a vacant half-acre parcel it owns at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. Construction would require a city variance as exception to development regulations in that area.

The property is east of the coastal construction control line, a state-designated boundary intended to mitigate impacts on sand, dunes and turtles. In Boca Raton, construction east of the line is allowed only with a variance and after a development company shows its project won't be environmentally harmful.

Azure's lawsuit claims the city acted in a biased way on the variance denial and violated due process by not allotting its experts enough time to present their case at a public hearing. The city also didn't have competent substantial evidence to deny the application.

Azure is asking the Palm Beach Circuit Court to throw out a city resolution denying the variance. Unanimous rejections came Jan. 10 from the city environmental advisory board and Feb. 26 from the City Council.

"The city's unabashed institutional bias deprived petitioner of any semblance of due process as the resolution was a foregone conclusion long before Feb. 26, 2019," attorney Roberto Vargas wrote in the complaint. "The hearings before the EAB and City Council were charades of due process that underscored the pervasive bias."

Vargas, a shareholder at Jones Foster in West Palm Beach, filed the complaint March 28 with Robert Sweetapple, managing member at Sweetapple, Broeker & Varkas in Boca Raton.



The city declined to address the allegations, saying it's reviewing the lawsuit and that doesn't comment on pending litigation.

The institutional bias allegation stems from statements by Mayor Scott Singer and council members Monica Mayotte and Andrea O'Rourke to voters about preserving beachfront property from development. The attorneys claim the three, who aren't defendants, made up their minds to deny Azure's request before a hearing.

Singer made his statement in a re-election video last summer, and Mayotte and O'Rourke made theirs in writing to voters, according to the complaint. Mayotte said she wants to uphold the preservation "legacy" created by previous city leaders.

In his defense, Singer on Friday denied the allegation he prejudged the proposal. He said his vote was based on facts showing the project would have an environmental impact.

"I voted based on the substantial evidence in the extensive record, including that on the impacts to the dunes, turtles and vegetation," Singer said in an email.

Mayotte and O'Rourke didn't return requests for comment by deadline.

The city at one point considered acquiring the parcel and other oceanfront properties from private owners or by eminent domain to ensure their preservation from development.

A city-commissioned appraisal of the lot set its value at $7.2 million, assuming the variance was obtained. The lawsuit said Azure offered to sell the property to the city, but some council members balked at the price tag at a meeting last October.

The variance denial was done in "self-interest," the complaint said. "The city had every incentive to deny the requested variance to depress the value of the property for its own self-interest."

The allegation of due process denial stems from how much time Azure and its experts were allotted to present their case.

Azure said the city denied its request for a two-hour council presentation and 15 minutes each to cross examine city experts. The city instead allotted Azure one hour to present and three minutes each for cross-examination.

Even with that, Azure argues it was rushed at both city meetings and didn't have time to present its turtle and dune vegetation experts.

The beach at the site is a nesting area for loggerhead, green and leatherback turtles. Azure said its lighting plan exceeded city requirements and would have had a minimal impact on the turtles. The city responded by saying "lighting and reflection of glass onto the turtle habitat from the proposed duplex is of critical concern," according to the complaint.

"At the end of the day," Vargas wrote, Azure's "evidence was irrelevant to the city as the city had predetermined that it would deny the variance regardless of the evidence presented."