CORTEZ – The public can watch the next Hunters Point Resort & Marina dock permit challenge hearing on Zoom, scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 9:30 a.m. through Thursday, Aug. 18 at the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) office in Tampa.
Additional hearing dates, if needed, are scheduled for Sept. 1-2 at 9:30 a.m. All hearing dates will have a Zoom conference option that anyone can access using the meeting ID 2965656070 and the meeting passcode 133626.
The administrative hearing pertains to an administrative challenge the owners of the nearby Cortez Village Marina, MHC Cortez Village LLC, filed against developer Marshall Gobuty’s Cortez Road Investments & Finance Inc. ownership group and SWFWMD.
Cortez Village Marina seeks the revocation or modification of the environmental resource permit that SWFWMD issued to Gobuty and his development team in 2021. That permit allows for the construction of 49 docks along the canal privately owned by Gobuty and Cortez Road Investments. The canal borders the Hunters Point property located along Cortez Road West on three sides.
Administrative law judge Bruce Culpepper is presiding over the hearing, which began on June 14-15. Culpepper said the sole intent of the hearing is to determine whether the water district properly issued the environmental resource permit that allows the Hunters Point docks to be built.
Navigation rights
The separate but related issue of any existing and ongoing riparian rights held by upland property owners, including the Cortez Village Marina, is a matter to be decided in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Manatee County.
The Hunters Point ownership group has filed a riparian rights-related lawsuit against the Cortez Village Marina that seeks an injunction to prevent the marina and its clients from using the Hunters Point canal. Judge Charles Sniffen has been assigned to the case.
On June 6, an attorney representing the Cortez Village Marina filed a response that, among other things, contends the navigable canal has been used for more than 25 years by the marina, the marina’s predecessors and those who own homes along the canal.
A counterclaim filed by Gobuty’s attorney states: “MHC (Cortez Village Marina) refers to the canal as the ‘navigable canal.’ By calling the waterbody the ‘navigable canal,’ MHC implies that the canal is navigable under the law and legally open to public use. However, this is not the case.”
The Hunters Point ownership group also recently filed a civil lawsuit to compel eight property owners to remove their docks, boat lifts and other structures located in the Hunters Point canal. Judge Edward Nicholas has been assigned to this case and the attorney or attorneys representing the defendants named in this lawsuit had not filed any responses as of Friday, July 1.
No hearing dates have been scheduled for either of the civil lawsuits.
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Hunters Point dock permit challenge begins
