Ocean Springs asks judge to reconsider ruling to demolish The Sands beachfront condos

The Ocean Springs aldermen called a special meeting Friday and unanimously asked a Jackson County judge to reconsider his ruling that calls for the demolition of a condo project on the beach and nullifies the city’s zoning code.

“If that fails, we will go to the Supreme Court,” Mayor Kenny Holloway said.

Judge Robert Krebs this week ruled that The Sands project was illegally built and ordered the two condo buildings already standing on the beach in Ocean Springs be torn down.

He didn’t specify whether the city of the developer should demolish the buildings.

In his order, signed July 7, the judge also overturned the city’s Unified Development Code, which Mayor Kenny Holloway said could potentially stymie all new development in the city if it isn’t resolved. The code determines what type of development is allowed where in the city.

Without a zoning code, Ocean Springs won’t know what to do with people who come to the city with projects, he said.

The city’s code wasn’t supposed to be part of The Sands development.

“We don’t understand how that happened,” Holloway said.

The ruling

Krebs said in his 49-page ruling, “Despite objections from members of the community and the glaring obvious lack of conformity with the zoning ordinances, the sketch plat, preliminary plat and final plat were all approved by the Board of Aldermen.”

He ruled the non-compliant buildings should be demolished within 60 days.

“I’m not tearing them down,” The Sands developer Michael Butler said Friday.

If he is forced to develop the site with apartments instead of attached townhouses, Butler said, he could incorporate the existing structures into the apartments.

The developer can go back to building apartments under the old code, Holloway said.

“I prefer, as the mayor, not to have apartments there,” he said.

Court battles

The project has been tied up in court for years, produced 8,000 pages of legal documents. Holloway said it has cost the city a lot of money in legal fees and lost tax revenue by not being built.

One waterfront townhouse already built is 5,500 square feet and the other is just under 3,000 square feet, Holloway said. Add the other 42 townhouses planned, and the city and school district are losing significant tax revenue, he said.

As part of his campaign for mayor, Holloway vowed to work to resolve the impasse between developers and residents who brought the lawsuit.

The project would bring about $800,000 a year in tax revenue, he said, and needs to be completed.

The project was proposed in 2015 by the late Lee Brumfield as 41 individual townhouses on 5.6 acres along Front Beach and Martin Avenue at 265 Front Beach.

The townhouses were to range from 2,200 square feet priced at $350,000 to 4,000 square foot homes for about $1 million.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the acreage held a 112-unit apartment complex, the Sun Herald reported.

When neighbors brought a lawsuit that the stand-alone development was illegal, the developers switched plans to attached townhomes.

The ruling names Michael Illanne, Julia Illane, Ben Cheney, Lyn Cheney, Randall Scott Edwards, Joye Shanteau, John Godsey, Zachary Greene, Stacey Greene and Dinah Payne as those who brought the lawsuit.

“The neighbors waited until we put all of the infrastructure in before they sued,” Butler said.

“They’re going to appeal again. There’s no doubt in my mind, no matter what I submit, they’re going to file another appeal,” he said.

This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 5:19 PM.