JENSEN BEACH — The owners of 72 units
at Villa Del Sol, a condominium association in Jensen Beach, will have to
decide whether to sell the property or repair three, structurally deficient
condominium buildings.
People haven’t been able to live in their beachside property for six months
after a third party inspection found issues with the foundation at three
buildings on the property.
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The memorandum
estimated the special assessment would cost each condo owner
about $86,000.
However, the estimation didn’t include if the work done to
the building exceeded 50% of the appraised buildings value.
If this happened, then the memorandum
said they would have to bring the three inhabitable buildings to current
building code. This would become problematic because the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection doesn’t allow people to build seaward of a line
called the Coastal Construction Control Line. In this case, the three
buildings are east of the line.
The Coastal Construction Control Line that the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection doesn’t allow people to build seaward of.
The board said this would require they demolish the three buildings. Then
rebuild the buildings west of the line, closer to Ocean Drive. The
memorandum didn’t provide an estimate for this work.
According to the memorandum, the board is also looking at selling the entire
property. For this to occur, the board said virtually each unit on the
property would have to agree to terminate the condominium association then
put the land on the market. This would allow a buyer to purchase the
property.
Then the board said the county would allow a potential buyer to build up to
72 units on the property or ask county officials for a zoning change.
The likelihood of consensus to terminate the association, at least for now,
is unlikely as people like Segedin don’t want to sell the property to
anybody.
Various outcomes if condo owners choose to sell, repair or do nothing.
"That would burn me up," he told WPTV’s Ethan Stein. "This is once in a
lifetime oceanfront home. I don’t even want to tell you how many years it
took me to get here. I worked my a— to get here."
The memorandum also said six of 34 owners surveyed voted to rebuild the
three buildings. It also said the board reached out to a private company,
Condominium Advisory Group, to develop and manage the termination of Villa
Del Sol.
According to a different memorandum dated January 15, Condominium Advisory
Group recommended the board and owners conduct workshops to determine the
feasibility of raising funds to repair the property.
It also said the county could at some point levy fines against the
association and could begin more intense inspections at the other buildings
on the property.
Eric Gill, who is a spokesperson for St. Lucie County, said there was no
fees being assessed and staff has worked with association on a variety of
options to move forward while following building code. He also said he
didn’t know what the advisory group was referring to in its memorandum
regarding fines
“The hope is that the association will work to get the structure safe again,
and at this time there are no fees being assessed,” he wrote.