FORT PIERCE \u2013 A Fort Pierce resident is suing the city to stop any new lease agreements for the Little Jim Bait and Tackle site until \u201can independent third-party investigator\u201d can verify that \u201call infractions, violations and compliance issues\u201d there have been resolved.<\/p>\n
Plaintiff Kevin Keene says he\u2019s willing to dismiss his St. Lucie County Circuit Court action if the Fort Pierce City Commission agrees to that July 6 and will support a City Charter amendment that would require a \u201ccountywide vote of the citizens\u2026on all future land-use considerations involving publicly held waterfront lands\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Court records show Keene, of Palmetto Avenue, began his legal action in October 2025, but the city was not officially served with the lawsuit until February 2026. In it, he alleges the city has failed to act on a series of docks constructed by the current leaseholder without proper permitting and over submerged land owned by the state, not the city.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s given rise to a disciplinary action by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) that has resulted in the city being ordered to pay nearly $15,000 in fines and costs, plus an annual charge to rent the state-owned property where those docks are currently located. Failure to comply with the FDEP order could mean additional penalties of thousands of dollars a day.<\/p>\n
Keene\u2019s lawsuit alleges there\u2019s \u201ca broader pattern of defective administration and poor stewardship by the city concerning publicly owned waterfront properties,\u201d citing the city\u2019s inability to provide a clear title to land in a floundering Fisherman\u2019s Wharf development, a long-delayed King\u2019s Landing project and closure of Crabby\u2019s, a waterfront restaurant on city property that abruptly closed earlier this year, owing the city $200,000 in unpaid rent and property taxes.<\/p>\n
The city filed a motion to dismiss Keene\u2019s suit in March, it was granted by the court in April, but Circuit Court Judge Steven J. Levin allowed Keene, who is representing hiimself, to file an amended complaint within 30 days.<\/p>\n
Keene filed his amended action in May and the city responded in June, asking the court to dismiss it and award the city attorney fees.<\/p>\n
Keene says he has standing to file his action, claiming that as a \u201clongstanding\u201d user of the North Hutchinson Island waterway, the alleged Little Jim infractions interfere with his \u201cpersonal use, enjoyment, access and benefit from that specific public waterfront site.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says his suit does not impact the city\u2019s current month-to-month lease extension with Little Jim operator Salty3 Baitshop LLC.<\/p>\n
Keene acknowledges that the city owns the waterfront property. But he says he\u2019s advocating for control by St. Lucie County voters because waterfront areas are used countywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cCounty residents are the ones launching boats there, fishing there, and relying on those boat ramps,\u201d Keene told Hometown News. \u201cThen county residents should have a voice before those public waterfront assets are leased away or repurposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has not responded to Hometown News\u2019 requests for comment on the matter. And the agenda for the July 6 city commission meeting has not been published yet.<\/p>\n
The FDEP also has failed to provide statements requested by Hometown News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 A Fort Pierce resident is suing the city to stop any new lease agreements for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-319581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}