With 2025 coming to a close, the legal efforts to Protect Captiva are coming to a head. As detailed in our last Legal Update, the Captiva community is front and center in four legal proceedings – each of which will soon be decided after oral arguments, further motions and final briefs.
So far, $1.5 million has been raised for the Protect Captiva legal fund from more than 1,600 donors, and legal fees and costs have now reached $1.3 million. To continue our legal efforts, another $300,000 will surely need to be raised over the next few months. Any end-of-year donations can help guarantee that our community will continue to have the best legal representation.
Here is a quick summary of the pending litigation.
• The County and South Seas are appealing the important Circuit Court decision limiting the whole of South Seas to 912 units. Briefs have been filed and the parties are awaiting the scheduling of oral argument in the Sixth District Court of Appeal. South Seas and the County cannot request or approve building permits for condominiums or hotels on South Seas without providing CCA notice so that it has sufficient time to enjoin development pending the appeal.
• CCA, RLR Investments and Royal Shell Vacations, 12 South Seas Condominium Associations and 8 Timeshare Associations have together filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari seeking to invalidate the County’s decision to rezone South Seas to permit increased density and building heights. The parties are waiting for the Court to review the Petition and schedule dates for the County and South Seas to respond.
• CCA and the City of Sanibel have together appealed the decision of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in the Division of Administrative Hearings. The ALJ was wrong in ruling that the Land Development Code amendments which exempted South Seas from Captiva’s hotel density and building height limits were consistent with the Lee Plan, which requires the County to “limit development to that which is in keeping with the historic development pattern on Captiva . . . including South Seas.” The parties are waiting for the Sixth District Court of Appeal to schedule oral argument. If the Court reverses the DOAH Judge, everything the County has done for the new owners of South Seas during the past two years will be called into question.
• CCA continues to await the Circuit Court’s review of its motions for sanctions and attorneys fees against South Seas and its attorney for filing a frivolous lawsuit claiming that the 912 unit limit in the 2003 Settlement Agreement between CCA and Lee County did not include hotel units – when the evidence is overwhelming that the historic 912 unit limit at South Seas always included both residential and hotel units.
Again, we thank you for your incredibly generous support and ask you, if you’re able, to continue to contribute. It is because of you that Captiva has a great chance to prevail.
Your tax-deductible contribution to the Legal Fund can be made here.