HOLMES BEACH – The beachfront treehouse built by Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen is the story that just keeps on giving.
While the owners are still appealing a court ruling ordering the destruction of the treehouse, they now have a new issue – they can’t renew their vacation rental certificates.
Code Compliance Officer James Thomas said that he’s been working with the owners of Angelinos Sea Lodge – the home of the controversial treehouse – to get the issues resolved between them and the city so that they can get the VRCs, which allow them to rent the four short-term vacation rental units on their property.
While Angelinos previously had VRCs for the units, Thomas said that city code prevents him or his fellow officers from renewing the certificates due to the outstanding code violations and fines on the property related to the treehouse, which is under a court order to be torn down. He added that the code compliance department has been advised by the attorney handling the treehouse case for the city, Randy Mora, to not issue any VRC renewals on the property until the code issues are cleared up.
Thomas said that Tran and Hazen will have to work with the city’s building department to make the treehouse a legal structure on the property, which is unlikely, since they tried to get after-the-fact permits for the structure a few years ago and were given a long list of reasons why former Building Official Jim McGuinness denied those permits. Some of those issues are that the supporting posts are not buried far enough in the sand to appropriately support the treehouse structure according to code, the treehouse is not accessible to the disabled and it’s located too close to the erosion control line to be legally permitted. Holmes Beach Building Official Neal Schwartz did not return a request for comment from The Sun.
Thomas said their other option is to pay the code compliance fines and remove the treehouse to clear the code issues on the property.
If the treehouse is either made legal under city permits or torn down, he said the VRC renewals for the four vacation rental units can be processed. Until those renewals are granted, Thomas said that the units have to remain closed to visitors.
As of Oct. 15, the daily accrued code fine against the treehouse owners was $95,600. With fines accruing at $50 per day, that adds about another $3,650 through Dec. 27. As of Dec. 22, City Treasurer Lori Hill said the treehouse owners owe the city $184,914 in legal fees.
In response to the city’s Oct. 16 denial of the renewal of the VRCs, Tran and Hazen submitted a letter to the city Oct. 19 stating that they had received a legal opinion on the renewal denials and believe they were issued in error for several reasons. One of those reasons is that there are still three pending appeals in Manatee County Circuit Court, and the owners also are appealing to the United States Supreme Court for a second time to review the case.
Another reason is that the treehouse isn’t a habitable structure on the property and is for the personal use of the owners, not vacationers at the property. The other listed reasons are the loss of income due to lost reservations on the property with the VRCs not renewed on time and the fact that the VRCs were both initially issued and renewed once by the city during the time that the treehouse has been standing on the property. The owners’ legal opinion came from attorney David Levin.
Thomas said that he’s found both Tran and Hazen to be receptive to efforts to resolve the situation but until a resolution is reached, the Angelinos Sea Lodge remains closed to guests.
Tran and Hazen did not return requests for comment from The Sun.
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