County and wharf owner at war
Battle has continued for 11 years
By Kim Hackett
Published Friday, Feb. 15, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

VENICE — With so many waterfront restaurants and public marinas converting to condominiums throughout Southwest Florida, John Konecnik's new 47-slip floating dock at Fisherman's Wharf would seem to be an amenity celebrated by Venice — a mooring area where visiting boaters could dock and spend money downtown.

But it has been sitting unused for a year beneath the Hatchett Creek Bridge because it is 18 feet longer than the dock Sarasota County approved several years ago.

Even though the county acknowledges that there is no adverse impact to the environment, public health or navigation in the Intracoastal Waterway, the County Commission on Wednesday rejected Konecnik's request to approve the dock.

The after-the-fact permit he sought would have allowed him to keep the dock as is.

For the dock to conform to county regulations, Konecnik, 70, would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to cut it down to size. Instead, he said he is going to fight the county in court, leaving the dock to sit unused.

"It serves no navigational purpose" for the county to reject the permit, Konecnik said while giving a tour of the docks, next to his popular Marker 4 Oyster Bar, renovated two years ago.

Konecnik said the dock's engineering plans were approved by the city of Venice and are about 200 feet shorter than what the state and the Army Corps of Engineers approved in 2001. He faults a few minor engineering "clerical errors" for a slightly longer dock than the county had in mind.

The county staff report reviewed by the commissioners before Wednesday's vote noted no objections or problems with the dock since its completion a year ago.

The county's permit rejection is just the latest round in an 11-year, multifront battle between Konecnik, the city of Venice, the county and the state over what he can do with the land -- both above and below water -- that he owns at the city's northeastern gateway on prime Intracoastal waterfront.

It is a battle that brought former Gov. Jeb Bush into the fray several years ago, as he declared that Konecnik did indeed own nine acres of underwater land. In exchange for giving the state five acres of the underwater land, the state gave Konecnik permits to build a 686-foot dock on the underwater land he still owned.

"I thought we were good to go," Konecnik said, adding that Venice gave him a building permit as well. "No one told me we had to get county approval."

Even though the property and the dock are clearly in the city limits and would provide boat access to residents and visitors, city officials are staying out of the fray. Unlike other municipalities, since 1998 Venice has "outsourced" its harbor and dock management to the county, saying it lacked the expertise.

Venice is in the process of taking back control, however, and it could have weighed in on the issue Wednesday. It chose not to.

"Legally and technically, that's the domain of the county," said Venice zoning director Tom Slaughter.

It is a battle over personalities and wills as much as zoning and permit infractions. Konecnik admits as much. He has had a steady turnover of lawyers and engineers "that have not served him well," Slaughter said.

Konecnik has owned the property since 1988, when the popular Fisherman's Wharf restaurant was still operating on the site.

Konecnik cleared the site and came up with a plan to put two 12-story condos and a marina there.

He went back and forth over density and building height with the city of Venice, which ultimately shot down his plans. Konecnik was persistent and several times presented similar plans when the city made it clear that the buildings were too tall.

When he did not get his way, Konecnik threatened to raze the Marker 4 restaurant or bring back a big gambling boat that he once had there.

In 1997 Konecnik had brought a pink, 91-foot "Vegas-to-Venice" gambling boat to Venice against the objections of the city. The boat seated close to 300 passengers and would travel into international waters for a gambling "cruise to nowhere."

He was cited for "propeller dredging" in the marina, which got him into trouble with the state. It also prompted him to research his property lines. It turned out Konecnik owned nine acres below the water, extending beneath the Harbor Lights Mobile Home Park, a neighbor he frequently battled over restaurant noise and water rights.

Konecnik started billing Harbor Lights residents $168,000 each for their docks, adding fuel to the fire. He eventually relented and never pursued the fees.

Finally, after lengthy negotiations with Konecnik's lawyers and the state, Konecnik maintains he was guaranteed permits for the big dock as part of a June 2001 deal with the governor and Cabinet that acknowledged his ownership of 9.61 acres of underwater land.

As part of that deal, Konecnik agreed to give the state ownership of 5.25 acres of submerged land, including the land under the Harbor Lights docks and the West Coast Inland Navigation District boat dock. In exchange, the state guaranteed he would get all the permits he needed to build the dock.

When the county said no to the longer dock, in part because of protest by Harbor Lights residents, Konecnik went back to the drawing board but repeatedly came back with plans for a 686-foot dock. Both sides finally agreed to 415 feet. So it was no surprise that the commissioners were a little peeved when the dock turned out to be 433 feet.

He is pursuing a separate lawsuit against the county on that issue as well, claiming the county owes him $2.3 million for a legal "taking" of his property rights for reducing the size of the dock from the state-approved 686 feet.

"I'm getting too old for this," said Konecnik, who walks with a limp and a cane after recent hip surgery.

VENICE -- Fisherman's Wharf owner John Konecnik said the county's denial Tuesday of his dock construction plans will likely force him to close his popular waterfront restaurant.

The county commissioners voted 4-1 to deny a 676-foot dock that would create 75 boat slips, 17 of which would be open to the public.

Instead, the commissioners granted the wharf owner additional time to complete what they'd approved in the past, a 415-foot dock, with spaces for 67 boats.

The decision was a major setback for Konecnik, who has long threatened to build a high-rise condominium on his wharf property if the county refused his plans to build the longer dock.

Now, he said, he may close the Marker IV, which is one of the few waterfront restaurants left in the area.

"There's no sense in keeping Marker IV as a restaurant," Konecnik said. "We don't have any dockage for the restaurant people to come to."

But pressed for specifics on when the restaurant might close, Konecnik said no decision has been reached.

Konecnik and his attorneys couched his latest request as a small step toward reversing the trend of disappearing public dock space and amenities with access to the Gulf of Mexico.

But the commissioners said Konecnik's plan differed only slightly from the plans he presented in 2002, which they denied. In July 2004, Konecnik again sought permission but won approval for only the 415 feet, a compromise commissioners approved in the face of fierce opposition from Harbor Lights, a neighboring manufactured-home community.

The dock would have run parallel to the Harbor Lights sea wall, reducing access to boat slips along the sea wall and blocking views of the waterway, residents said.

While the county should encourage public dock space and waterfront access, it shouldn't come at injury to neighboring property owners, said commissioner Nora Patterson.

"I just can't get over achieving that good by building a dock parallel to homes," Patterson said, before acknowledging her regret that the decision might force the restaurant to close. "It's really with sadness that I can't support the dock because of the size."

Commissioner Jon Thaxton said the plans would do little to correct the shortage.

"You can't correct a deficit that's been created over a 5- to 10-year period all in one site," Thaxton said.

Expecting strong opposition, Konecnik had distributed petitions to restaurant and bar patrons that explained his plan. He presented nearly 8,000 signed petitions, filling three file boxes, in support of his plans.

In a sign of how passionate the debate had become, the hearing ran nearly four hours and included testimony from more than 60 members of the audience, including neighbors along the waterway and restaurant patrons.

"We've got an opportunity here for private enterprise to provide public water access. It's a win-win situation," said one speaker, Patrick McCarthy. "If it goes through, it will prevent another marina from becoming a victim of condo development."

But opponents from Harbor Lights said Konecnik had refused meetings with them, ignoring their concerns and even sending bills to them for improvements made to the waterfront area they share.

"We've received a lot of what I'd call harassment or intimidations from Mr. Konecnik," said Don Augustine. "I do think we're doing the right thing in opposing the docks."

County commissioner David Mills cast the lone vote in support of Konecnik's plan.