A Clermont attorney representing the owner of a defunct Fruitland Park restaurant has filed a motion to have the city’s lawsuit against him dismissed.
City Attorney Anita Geraci-Carver filed the suit recently against T.D. Burke, owner of Burke’s BBQ, which is located at 311 County Road 466A. The suit came about after Burke failed to follow through with a commitment to hook up to the city’s water and sewer systems, install a fire hydrant at the restaurant and pay significant impact fees.
Burke had signed an agreement in April 2012 stating that he would have a six-month window to honor his agreement once sewer and water hookups became available to him. Last year, the city sent Burke two letters giving him until Oct. 6 to take care of the issues, and La Venia said he then paid him a visit and “raised holy hell.”
“He said absolutely no way am I doing this,” La Venia said. “And he didn’t. He just didn’t want to pay the money.”
At Thursday night’s Fruitland Park Commission meeting, Geraci-Carver said Burke’s attorney, Lindsay Holt, of the law firm Crawford, Modica & Holt, had recently filed the motion with the Fifth Judicial Court in Lake County seeking to dismiss the suit. Geraci-Carver said the next step is for her to read Holt’s motion and then decide whether to amend the lawsuit or to ask the judge to set a hearing date.
Burke, who closed the restaurant in late July and had a sale to get rid of equipment and fixtures, was officially served with the suit on Sept. 23 after process servers made several attempts to contact him. Holt then filed a motion the following day stating that she would be Burke’s “counsel of record.”
The Fruitland Park Commission made the decision to file the suit in June after Geraci-Carver sent Burke another letter in March giving him until June 19 to take care of the outstanding issues. After receiving no response by that deadline, Commissioner Patrick DeGrave pushed for the city to file the lawsuit against Burke.
“While we’re a friendly city, if you sign an agreement with us, you have to live up to your end of the bargain,” DeGrave said. “So, I think we have to hold to the development agreement. And if the next step is filing that claim, we file the claim.”
DeGrave reiterated his thoughts about the suit in August after Geraci-Carver told commissioners Burke had closed the eatery. He called it a fundamental issue and said it had nothing to do with who owns the property.
Last month, commissioners were told that developers Paul and Tim Rohan, Carl Curly and Daniel Gibbs were actively pursuing a plan with Lake County to build the Sun Recreational Vehicle Development park on a 90-acre plot of land owned by the Burke family. It would include spaces for 631 RVs, many of which could be permanent, mobile-home-type models.
The commission expressed fears of the park being a way to bring low-income housing to the area and sent a letter to Lake County officials explaining its opposition and suggesting other uses for the property would be more beneficial.
Paul and Tim Rohan are the brothers of John Rohan, the longtime director of recreation for The Villages. Their proposed RV park, which is located where Burke’s Tree Farm currently sits, would back up to Villages homes along the Lake/Sumter County line and include a 3.4-acre “Amenity Village” that would offer a clubhouse with a pool, as well as multiple bathhouses and two lift stations.
It doesn’t appear that the property where Burke’s BBQ is located would be part of the 90-acre sale for the RV park. Geraci-Carver also has assured commissioners that any new owner of the property where the restaurant building sits would be required to resolve the issues with the city, which will likely cost them about $110,000.
