Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel

By Anne Geggis

Published September 5, 2014

Downtown parking spots can be hard to find in Boca and now 100 spots there are going to be the focus of a federal case.

Earlier this month, Palmetto Place at Mizner Park Condominium Association filed suit against the city and city landlords James and Marta Batmasian, the owner of Investments Limited. The suit alleges that Boca – a “a rogue municipality” and the Batmasians conspired against the condominium association to deprive them of their rightful parking, among other allegations.

The city has been trying to get the condo association to take down the gates that keep the public out of the parking garage there. But the suit says that the code enforcement notices against the gates amount to “an illegal taking of Palmetto Place’s property” that was issued at the Batmasians’ bidding.

The city this week petitioned to have the case moved to federal court.

Palmetto Park is a mixed-use building with 244 condominiums and also includes restaurants, such as the Gluttonous Goat, and the now-defunct Fork & Knife, which the Batmasians rent.

The building was approved with conditions that some of the 507 spaces in the garage would be for retail customers’ and employees’ use, city officials say. But the condo association does not agree. And, court papers show, neither did a city employee who no longer works there.

John Hixenbaugh, director of the city’s development services, opined in writing that the parking there was a “private issue” and that he had no wish to be Batmasian’s “wassertrager” – German for “water carrier.” Hixenbaugh left the city’s employment in April, after nearly two years there.

The suit accuses the city of fabricating a zoning approval to support its allegations that the building’s approval came with a number of parking spaces for the retail.

“The city’s’ actions are arbitrary, capricious, have no rational basis and have deprived plaintiff of the full use of the Palmetto Place property and have stripped plaintiff of the rights granted by the approved site plan and the original zoning approval order,” the suit reads.

Mike Woika, assistant city manager for Boca Raton, declined to comment on ongoing litigation.