- Named Best Florida Newspaper In Its Class -
VOL 21 No. 31
May 12, 2021
The Court denies the treehouse owners’ petition to hear their case, but the fight isn’t over yet. BY KRISTIN SWAIN SUN STAFF WRITER | kswain@amisun.com
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear treehouse owners’ case SUBMITTED | FACEBOOK
HOLMES BEACH – The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt another legal blow to the owners of the beachfront treehouse at Angelinos Sea Lodge. Owners Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen had appealed to the court to issue a writ of certiorari in their case against the city of Holmes Beach. The owners have been fighting to keep their treehouse in its Australian pine perch in front of their home and four-unit vacation rental property for nearly a decade. The court denied the appeal in a document issued May 3. It is the second time the court has refused to hear a matter regarding the treehouse, the first time being in 2017. The denial from the highest court in the land is the second setback to the treehouse owners’ case in less than a month. The first came from the Holmes Beach special magistrate, who ruled during an April code compliance hearing that Tran and Hazen violated the city’s vacation rental ordinance. The magistrate said the owners were renting their four units without valid vacation rental certificates issued by the city. The couple applied for VRC renewals in late 2020 but were denied due to outstanding code compliance issues on the property, namely the treehouse and associated code fines. Until the fines are settled and the existing issues are remedied - with either
Owners Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen stand on the deck of their beachfront treehouse. SEE TREE HOUSE, PAGE 25
Blue-green algae bloom clogging bays, ICW Lyngbya in local waters can cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation, but its removal is not feasible, local scientists say. BY CINDY LANE
SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
Nutrients and warming temperatures are feeding a bloom of blue-green algae called Lyngbya in area waters, according to scientists with Manatee County. As has been the case over the last two years, Lyngbya is accumulating in the waters of Robinson Preserve and
INSIDE NEWS 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 6 OUTDOORS 18 CASTLES IN THE SAND 20 REAL ESTATE 20-25 RESTAURANTS 27 CROSSWORD 29
in the Intracoastal Waterway, Sarasota Bay and Tampa Bay, according to a report by county environmental scientists distributed to county commissioners by Acting County Administrator Scott Hopes last week. Excessive Lyngbya, a cyanobacterium, is common locally when warm temperatures combine with nutrientrich waters to form mats, according to the report. The nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen were contained in the 215 million gallons of polluted water released into SEE LYNGBYA, PAGE 25
JAMBALAYA, fresh
from The Porch. In Food & Wine. 17
Anna Maria Island, Florida
RUSTY CHINNIS | SUN
A kayaker navigates around a Lyngbya bloom at Robinson Preserve last week.
ALARM expressed over proposed
14-bedroom house. 3 BELIEVE it! Time to prepare
for hurricane season 2021. 10 The Island’s award-winning weekly newspaper www.amisun.com
