Aposporos: Will city settle or scuffle to defend its building ordinance?
“Bert Harris meant no harm.
This former Florida state representative, citrus grower and rancher is a hero of property rights activists.
There is a law named for him: the Bert J. Harris Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act. According to the Coalition for Property Rights, “The Bert Harris Act was created to restore balance to the regulatory process by providing citizens with a mechanism for seeking compensation when government regulations or policy actions inordinately burdened their property rights.”
The city of Anna Maria passed new provisions to their codes and ordinances a couple of years ago. The City Commission, seeing behemoth structures constructed on small building lots, and hearing the complaints of residents, passed an ordinance saying that square footage of a new air-conditioned structure could not exceed 40 percent of the land area.”
Aposporos, Tom. Herald Tribune 14 September 2014.