Watch Fox 4’s Alex Orenczuk report on the conflict resolution:<\/p>\n
Charlotte County invokes conflict law over parking rules in Boca Grande<\/p>\n
In the resolution, Charlotte County argues the changes \u201csubstantially reduce and restrict access to public beaches”.<\/p>\n
Under Florida\u2019s conflict resolution statute, both counties must now participate in good-faith negotiations facilitated by a mediator, with the goal of reaching a mutually acceptable compromise. If that fails, the disagreement may lead to litigation.<\/p>\n
Charlotte County Commissioner Chris Constance said the county\u2019s goal in mediation is clear. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want the outcome to have no less parking available than we had before the ordinance went in, that\u2019s my bottom line,\u201d Constance said. <\/p>\n
He added that if the issue does go to court, he’s confident Charlotte County has a strong case.<\/p>\n
“I honestly think that if we get past the dispute resolution, and it doesn’t work out and we have to go to court, I think we win,” Constance said. “I just think rights have been taken away and they’ve been done outside of due process.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charlotte County.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Chris Constance speaks during the board’s meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Robin Wilkins, has been an outspoken member of a group of Charlotte County residents opposed to the ordinance. She told Fox 4 she welcomes the counties finally sitting down together. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m optimistic, but still a little skeptical,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s \u201ca shame\u201d discussions didn\u2019t happen before the ordinance passed. <\/p>\n
Mediation between the two counties is expected to begin before the end of the year. <\/p>\n
Lee County said it has not yet received Charlotte County\u2019s resolution and could not comment. Though a Lee County spokesperson said that the new parking rules are not yet being enforced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. \u2014 Charlotte County commissioners have formally initiated a conflict resolution process with Lee County, escalating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[513,31155,31156,31157,17573,21038,31158,209,211,210,853,31159,31160],"class_list":{"0":"post-48311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-beach","9":"tag-beach-access","10":"tag-beach-news","11":"tag-beach-parking","12":"tag-bing-news","13":"tag-boca-grande","14":"tag-boca-grande-beach","15":"tag-cape-coral","16":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","17":"tag-cape-coral-news","18":"tag-charlotte-county","19":"tag-chris-constance","20":"tag-facebook-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311","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=48311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}