Suin’ the City
Coconut Grove Residents File Lawsuit to Stop Home Depot

“The appropriate city officials failed to provide [them] with notice or an opportunity to be heard regarding the issuance of this building permit.”

Many Coconut Grove activists fear a Home Depot in their neighborhood will create the same type of debris one resident documented outside the Home Depot at SW Eighth Street last October.

By Omar Sommereyns

Coconut Grove activists are apparently not relinquishing their fight to prevent a Home Depot from being erected in their neighborhood as three residents who live near the property recently filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami for improperly issuing a permit for the project.

“My clients have serious concerns about whether the city followed the law or not in granting this permit,” says Tucker Gibbs, the attorney representing residents Sarah D. Cullen, Sue McConnell and Leonard J. Scinto. “They have told me that my direction is to fight Home Depot every step of the way. Everything they do we’ll challenge, if we don’t feel they have properly followed the law.”

The city issued a building permit on June 12 for the property at 2999 SW 32nd Ave., a vacant retail space formerly occupied by a Kmart. There, Home Depot wants to build a 70,000-square-foot home improvement warehouse store.

However, the lawsuit challenges the validity of the permit and city of Miami zoning administrator Lourdes Slazyk’s determination that the project meets all applicable zoning requirements: “[It] violates the clearly stated language … of the zoning code. That language requires any large-scale retail establishment in this location to obtain a special exception and meet certain requirements. The appropriate city officials failed to review and approve this proposed large-scale retail establishment pursuant to the zoning requirements.”

In addition to the city, Slazyk and Hector Lima, the city’s Building Department director, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Furthermore, the lawsuit states, “The issuance of the building permit is a quasi-judicial matter requiring notice and an opportunity to be heard by the specially affected adjacent property owners, including the plaintiffs. The appropriate city officials failed to provide [them] with notice or an opportunity to be heard regarding the issuance of this building permit.”

Grove residents and activists believe a Home Depot is unnecessary and would be out of proportion in their neighborhood. More so, they point to the problems residents face with the Home Depot on SW Eighth Street.

Newly sworn-in Miami Commissioner-Elect Marc Sarnoff says, “I think the city and the Home Depot should be following the laws that were passed in April and December 2005, which would limit the size of their facility. Residents do not want large industrial-use structures in their village.”

Home Depot representatives could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Comments? E-mail omar@miamisunpost.com.