ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — St. Augustine business owner Andrew Horn has filed a lawsuit against the city after municipal officials extended parking restrictions in the area surrounding his establishment, Hornski’s Brewery.
The legal action challenges the city’s approval process for the expanded parking rules affecting commercial districts along Anastasia Boulevard.
As reported by Action News Jax, the city of St. Augustine will soon extend its parking restrictions to the North and Davis Shores neighborhoods. Under the updated regulations, local parking fines will triple to $100.
Horn stated that the restrictions put multiple commercial operations in jeopardy, warning that businesses lining Anastasia Boulevard could face the risk of closing if their guests have nowhere to park.
The lawsuit contends the city failed to comply with state statutory requirements governing municipal ordinances. According to the court filing, Florida law requires local governments to complete an official business impact estimate prior to enacting non-exempt ordinances.
State guidelines specify that the business impact estimate must contain a summary of the proposed ordinance, an estimate of its overall economic impact on local commercial operations, and a good faith estimate of the specific number of businesses likely to be impacted by the changes.
However, rather than providing a numerical calculation of the commercial establishments affected by the expanded parking rules, city officials completed the documentation by entering just a single word: “NONE.”
Marcus Thompson, managing attorney at Trinity Law & Title representing Hornski’s Brewery, said the city also failed to submit the required documentation in a timely manner.
Thompson said the business impact form was not submitted until two days after the ordinance had already passed the first of its two mandatory readings before the city.
Thompson criticized municipal leaders for failing to consult with local business owners before moving forward with the parking changes.
“They should have come to the business owners like last February and talked about this and actually had a dialog and put a plan in place.
“Instead, they tried to slip it into everybody under everybody’s noses,” Thompson said.
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