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Council won't offer opinion on tree rulesBy Karen Rivedal The fight over stricter tree-protection rules in Duval County will be decided without the Jacksonville City Council weighing in one way or the other. Councilman Jerry Holland abandoned his attempt Tuesday to make the council take a stand against tougher laws proposed in a Nov. 7 referendum, because he said council members were caught off guard by his request. Holland is a homebuilder with ties to a builders coalition that is suing now to keep the referendum off the ballot. Holland said Monday he wanted to propose a resolution at this week's council meeting opposing the referendum on the grounds that it wasn't fair to the Beaches communities. Holland also represents the Beaches, and this month he sent letters to all the elected officials there warning them that the referendum, if approved, could take away their local tree controls. The builders' suit, scheduled for a court hearing next week, makes that argument too, among others. But yesterday, a few hours before the council meeting was due to start, Holland said he would not try to introduce the measure for emergency action. "It would not give you much time to analyze it," Holland said to his council colleagues at an agenda meeting. Holland's decision to back off avoided what could have been a nasty fight over tree rules on the full council floor. On Monday members Suzanne Jenkins and Matt Carlucci both said Holland's measure was a bad idea because it would divide the council and because it could hurt City Hall in court. "I just don't get a good feeling on it," Carlucci said Monday. "I don't feel we should argue this case [as council members] when it's going to be in court," Jenkins said. Last week, Jenkins also said Holland had a conflict of interest in raising the issue, because his wife works for the Collins Group Inc., one of the builders in the pending lawsuit against the referendum. Holland said his ties were irrelevant because his goal with the letters was simply to inform the Beaches about a city matter that would affect them. City Hall lawyers are defending the supervisor of elections' decision to place the referendum on the ballot. Jacksonville attorney Bill Brinton, a member of the citizens group that collected signatures for the referendum, also intervened in the lawsuit to defend questions raised by the builders about the proposed rules. Jenkins and Carlucci also both personally support the referendum, which would mandate countywide tree-protection rules that would be about twice as strict as a city law approved by the council last year. In a formal legal opinion sought by Holland last week, city lawyers said the referendum, if approved, would apply to the Beaches and would supersede any weaker regulations there. They also said if Beaches' governments had stricter rules than the referendum requires, those stronger local rules would apply. |
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