Seminole County asks court to throw out River Cross developer’s lawsuit

Attorneys for Seminole County are asking a federal court to throw out a “burdensome type of” lawsuit filed by former state legislator Chris Dorworth that claims commissioners’ rejection of his proposed mega-development within the county’s voter-approved rural boundary violates the Fair Housing Act and would harm racial minorities.

According to Seminole’s motion filed Wednesday in federal court in Orlando, county lawyers say that Dorworth’s River Cross Land Co. is a non-minority developer that has not shown that the commission’s denial last August to rezone the 670-acres east of the Econlockhatchee River for the proposed mixed-use project would harm minorities.

“There was no evidence that minorities would even move into the new development,” county attorneys wrote in their response to Dorworth’s lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 2.

Seminole also argues Dorworth’s suit doesn’t provide evidence or statistics that show the population of minorities — including blacks and Hispanics — changed or that the rural area has caused a “negative disparate impact” on minorities after the boundary line was established in 2004 by voters.

Dorworth’s “complaint is that more minorities live in urban areas than rural areas, which is hardly unique to Seminole County,” according to Seminole’s motion.

Seminole attorneys said they couldn’t comment on the pending legal matter.

In May, Dorworth’s River Cross Land Co. filed a request with Seminole to rezone the former pastureland just north of the Orange County line for a new development of 600 singlefamily homes, 270 townhomes, 500 apartments and 1.5 million square feet of commercial space. The current zoning within that rural area is one home per 5 acres.

Seminole’s staff, planning and zoning commission and county commissioners all ultimately rejected the request in August, saying it was a too high-density project for the rural area without any water or sewer lines.

Seminole’s rural area covers roughly a third of the county’s east side. For more than 40 years, Seminole has planned that rural area as a place for agriculture and with homes sitting on large lots

The River Cross’ lawsuit states that blacks make up 2.9 percent and Hispanics 6 percent of the population within that rural area. Countywide, blacks make up about 12 percent and Hispanics roughly 18 percent of Seminole’s total population of about 422,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Although Seminole County touts the rural boundary as a means to maintain the rural character, lifestyle and agricultural potential of the rural areas of Seminole County, the rural boundary line has a segregative effect and disparate impact on protected minority classes in Seminole County, according the River Cross’ lawsuit.

Seminole’s motion also states that Dorworth’s company is using the Fair Housing Act argument as “a hook” to file a lawsuit in federal court rather than in civil court, where applicants usually appeal when they are denied by county commissioners.

Seminole also argues that when Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act in 1968 and later amended it in 1988, it “sought to protect an individual’s right to fair housing and live in integrated communities.” The act, however, was never meant to allow a developer to provide affordable housing within a county-designated rural area.

“This unusual attempt to exploit the FHA [Fair Housing Act] to support a nonminority developer’s economic interests disturbs the important concerns that drove the enactment of the FHA,” Seminole’s attorneys Shaina Stahl and Lynn Porter-Carlton wrote in the motion.

Seminole also points out that Dorworth’s application to the county to build his River Cross development just east of the Econ never guaranteed any affordable homes.

River Cross stated in its development application the company would apply for Florida Housing Finance Corporation funding, which would require a certain percentage of the units be for affordable housing.

However, “If they did not receive that funding, all designated affordable units would revert to market rate units,” Seminole’s motion stated.