Critic Sued By Plaza Hotel Developer

HERALD TRIBUNE - SARASOTA Lottie Varano organized his neighbors, got an attorney involved and wrote letters to city officials to fight a five-story, 173-room hotel planned for his Burns Square neighborhood.

The developer is firing back with a lawsuit, blaming Varano for spreading misinformation, creating delays and costing his business money.

The lawsuit, filed less than a month before city officials consider the planned Plaza Hotel, has characteristics of a so-called SLAPP lawsuit, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Such lawsuits aim to silence dissent and limit public participation in government decisions.

Those suits are discouraged in Florida, one of 26 states to adopt laws to protect people like Varano.

But experts say Florida's law is weak and leaves residents who complain about developments open to legal fees and hassles involved with defending themselves in court.

Varano, who did not think discussing the project with neighbors and city officials would land him in court, now has had to hire an attorney and filed a motion to dismiss the case.

"It's someone who's trying to bully me around and prevent me from asserting my First Amendment rights," Varano said.

Developer Al Hochstadt said he would not have sued if Varano's complaints were credible. He declined to say how much he was seeking in damages, although Varano said Hochstadt told him it was $10 million.

"They've caused a lot of delays, they've cost us a lot of money," Hochstadt said. "These people have a lot of money and have a lot of political pressure."

The project is in line for a fast-track approval under the city's new downtown code: It can be approved by staff and does not need to go before the City Commission.

Seeds of dissent

Hochstadt began buying up land between Palm and Orange avenues more than 20 years ago, and sees his planned hotel as "a little piece of Europe" that will become a destination here.

He wants to break ground and complete the hotel by 2010.

Nearby merchants see the project as a way to boost foot traffic in the Burns Square area.

But residents say the project is too big and will generate too much traffic, clogging two narrow side streets.

On May 12, Varano sent a letter to the city challenging the idea that the project is a hotel, as it will involve the sale of some units under "fractional ownership" similar to a time share.

Varano and his neighbors are also outraged that the hotel could be built without a vote by elected officials.

Hochstadt met with Varano, the president of the Essex House Association, and other residents of condominiums in the area about those concerns on April 9.

In the lawsuit, Hochstadt says that meeting was an ambush orchestrated by Varano. Instead of a few residents, he says he was met by more than 50 people who pushed him for information about the project. Hochstadt says they were fishing for details they could use against him.

Neighbors have since organized a group called Concerned Citizens of Palm Avenue, and have hired attorney Richard Ulrich, who sent a letter to the city saying the hotel suites are more like condominiums.

Hochstadt also sent an e-mail to Ulrich threatening a lawsuit.

A hearing for the Plaza Hotel project is scheduled for Wednesday before the Development Review Committee. If the plan meets all the standards of the city's new downtown code, the board has to approve it.

Hochstadt said he hopes the lawsuit sends a message to Varano and others opposed to his development.

"He's got to be very careful in what he does," Hochstadt said. "People must be responsible for their actions."

Obligations under the law

That approach is problematic because it is not up to a developer to decide what information is credible enough to be presented to decision-makers, said University of Central Florida sociology professor Penelope Canan.

Canan coined the term SLAPP in the 1980s, when she researched suits brought by developers to silence critics, especially environmentalists.

"If the government can't hear from the people it's supposed to represent, then the government can't do its job," Canan said. "It undermines good decision-making."

Florida law allows for a SLAPP lawsuit to be thrown out of court quickly and awards legal fees to the defendant, but it is weak compared to other states such as California.

In Florida, defendants have to convince a judge that the lawsuit is "without merit" and filed only because they used their free speech rights to address the government. If it is deemed a SLAPP suit, then the law allows the defendant to get attorneys fees and possibly damages from the person who filed it.

In California, the burden is on the plaintiffs to establish that they are probably going to win the lawsuit, or the case gets thrown out.

In both states, the battle can become complicated and expensive just to determine whether the lawsuit is a SLAPP lawsuit.

Canan said the average SLAPP lawsuit takes two years to go through the court system.

Threat of a similar lawsuit might make other citizens think twice about speaking up in their neighborhood, she said.

So far, SLAPP suits have been rare in Sarasota County.

Ann Kaplan, president of the Sarasota Council of Neighborhood Associations, or CONA, said her group's opposition has gotten her threatened with a lawsuit, but she has not heard of a SLAPP lawsuit filed in Sarasota County recently.

Sarasota attorney Morgan Bentley said there have been fewer SLAPP lawsuits filed since the state law was adopted.

Every case depends on the details, so it is hard for legislators to pre-empt an entire type of lawsuit, Bentley said.

As it is written, the law tries to balance two fundamental rights: the right to free speech and the right to sue someone for damages, Bentley said.

And the law's provision allowing for defendants to get damages against the person or company that filed the suit can be an effective deterrent, Bentley said.

"You just don't want to step in it," Bentley said.