La Bahia says it owns 13 additional residential leases
Residential cap is already met; Portofino holds remaining number
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com

All the 4,130 units in the residential cap are accounted for, or so the staff at the Santa Rosa Island Authority thought.

Now, residents from La Bahia townhomes on Fort

Pickens road say they want to

build six of the 13 additional units the developer was granted back in mid 1980s.

However, Santa Rosa Island Authority attorney Michael Stebbins maintains that time to build the units expired in 1990.

Not so fast, say the La Bahia folks. The 22 unit owners have been paying the equivalent of 35 lease fees for over 20 years, based on a SRIA requirement.

Representing the La Bahia homeowners group, attorney Lisa Minshew said the previous SRIA Development and Leasing manager, Mary Bolman, told her that if she could document that the sewer taps were paid for, then building permits would be granted.

Minshew said research paid off to find the documents showing where the sewer taps were paid for, even after some documentation was lost in a flood.

The board voted at their November committee meeting to petition the Escambia Board of County Commissioners to ask the Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee to make an addendum to the residential cap to resolve this issue.

The board will finalize this action at its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m.