County commissioners agreed to hire a private land use attorney to help defend the county in a lawsuit from the St. Joe Company.
The board voted to hire David Theriaque to be the lead council in a case in which the St. Joe Company is seeking 6.4 million dollars for damages its says it suffered after Franklin County removed four Future land use maps from the county’s comprehensive plan.
The land use maps were created in 2005 delineating areas east of Carrabelle where the St. Joe Company hoped to build thousands of homes.
The company never began work on any of the developments.
The land use maps were removed in 2009 to protect Franklin County from a glut of buildable lots in the future.
Commissioners at the time said they were not denying the St. Joe company the right to develop its property, they were just insuring that when the company does begin to develop that the county will be able to control the development every step of the way to make sure its in the best interest of Franklin County.
Mister Theriaque was hired on the case because he has worked on a number of similar cases around the state.
He told commissioners last year that St. Joe does not have any real claim against Franklin County because the company took no steps to move forward on their proposed developments after the future land use maps were approved.
He is not coming cheap.
The county will pay 200 dollars an hour for his services.
The expect the first phase of the lawsuit to cost nearly 40 thousand dollars.
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