Editor, The Beacon:

Glasshouse Square is suing the City of DeLand for denying rezoning of the Old Jail site. Glasshouse Square did not propose to build what it promised the citizens of DeLand in their winning response to the City’s Request for Proposals for the redevelopment of the Old Jail site.

In agricultural terms, what Glasshouse Square promised the citizens of DeLand in their winning response was a prize bull in return for transferring title for free of the Old Jail site in the heart of historic Downtown DeLand. After years of waiting, Glasshouse Square finally offered a broken-down milk cow.

It is critical to remember that Glasshouse Square is not the owner of the property it sought to rezone. The site is public property owned by the citizens of DeLand. The ability to seek rezoning is based upon a July 9, 2020, Acquisition and Redevelopment Agreement (the Agreement). This Agreement is the basis of these many years of negotiation, many city boards’ review of Glasshouse Square proposals, and many unanswered questions.

Glasshouse Square states a number of reasons for suing the City, among them that they repeatedly asked the City to tell Glasshouse Square what it wanted on the site. The City kept going back to the proposal in the Agreement — give us what you promised, including the parking.

Hopefully, with a vigorous defense, the City will get this suit dismissed. Glasshouse Square, by dumping a massive amount of paper attached to their filing without explaining how each document relates to their claims, does not assist the court in understanding the facts of the case.

The response to this suit should be to educate the court that the only reason this non-landowner came to the City to rezone property owned by the citizens of DeLand was because of the Agreement. And, the City should take the time and make the effort to educate the court that this substantial Appendix of documents submitted to the court in fact shows how the City tolerated years of delay and substantial proposed changes in what was promised to the citizens of DeLand.

Frank Schnidman

DeLand