Joel EngelhardtMediation success story: Palm Beach County and Palm Beach Gardens appear near deal to end five-year lawsuit.
The five-year legal battle pitting Palm Beach County against one of its biggest cities, Palm Beach Gardens, may be heading for a negotiated settlement.
After years of warring over the city’s decision to stop collecting county road impact fees, the two sides met in mediation Feb. 11, a change of course that may have stemmed from face-to-face meetings between new County Administrator Joe Abruzzo and Gardens City Manager Ron Ferris.
Relations between the city and county have been fraught for years with hostility.
At stake is at least $6.7 million the county says the city owes in impact fees it failed to collect while instead collecting a similar fee enacted by the city, called a mobility fee.
The one-day mediation may have ended the long-running dispute, mediator Greg Coleman wrote to Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge James Sherman on Feb. 12. In an unusual move, he withdrew his upbeat assessment the next day, replacing it with a much more muted report.
“This was an extraordinarily productive mediation,” he wrote initially. “To be clear, this matter was neither an impasse nor fully resolved, but is clearly on its way toward a full and complete resolution of all of its issues.”
All that remains, Coleman wrote, is for the litigants to get final approval of the proposed settlement from their respective governing boards in closed sessions (allowed under state law to discuss pending litigation).
The next day, Coleman filed an amended report, saying: “Outcome: Not an impasse. The parties will continue to negotiate.”
Apologizing for his error, Coleman asked the court to strike the first report, “as it contains language and information that was not requested by the parties.” The court agreed.
Coleman, a former Florida Bar president who practices in West Palm Beach, did not return phone calls or an email to explain why he withdrew the initial report.
The Palm Beach County Commission is likely to review the settlement in closed session at its March 10 meeting. The Gardens City Council’s review could come as early as its March 5 meeting, although it is not noticed on the council meeting agenda.
Impact fee vs. mobility fee
The dispute centers on control of money paid by developers. Since 1980, the county has collected impact fees from developers to help pay for the effect of their projects on the overall road network but those fees can be spent only on regional roads.
Over the past decade, the Legislature has allowed cities to create their own fees, called mobility fees, that can be used not only to build roads but to build alternatives to roads, such as bike lanes and sidewalks. That money is controlled by the city, however, not the county.
The city argued in 2020 that it had the right to collect mobility fees without regard to county laws calling for cities to collect impact fees, prompting the county to sue in May 2021. The county’s last calculation of how much it is owed, $6.7 million, dates to a September court filing.
The county’s 2021 lawsuit led to a five-day trial in 2022 resulting in a ruling favorable to the county, which was upheld on appeal. The case’s progress slowed after the city asked in 2023 for the ruling to be clarified but Judge Sherman rejected the city’s arguments after a one-day hearing in August 2025.
When the city still didn’t pay the county what it thought it was owed, the county filed for contempt of court sanctions against the city. A hearing on sanctions, scheduled for Feb. 2, was postponed after the two sides agreed to mediation.
City fights sanctions
Still, the city spelled out its reasons on Jan. 20 why its actions didn’t merit sanctions.
The March 2022 order from Circuit Court Judge Paige Gillman was “internally inconsistent,” “unclear as to key obligations” and required “conduct the city could not lawfully perform,” the city’s outside counsel, Scott Hawkins, wrote.
He said the court ruling that denied the city’s motion for clarification didn’t address the root issues.
“Nothing in the order clearly imposes the requirements the county claims,” Hawkins wrote. “They come from the county’s interpretation, not from an unambiguous directive from the court.”
Since the city said it didn’t owe the fee, it sent letters to developers in mid-September telling them that they had to pay even though those same developers already had paid the city mobility fee. Developers were unlikely to make such payments.
A city appeal filed in November over the dismissal of its counterclaim put on hold motions by both sides to get the judge to rule in their favor without a trial. The judge told the parties to prepare for a full trial in June on whether the city had the right to stop collecting county road impact fees.
Terms of the possible settlement have not been announced and neither side is willing to disclose details outside of court.
However, in an interview with Stet News in September, Abruzzo said, “I feel confident in our position that they owe us the fees.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to note that the litigation discussion is not on the Gardens City Council agenda posted for March 5.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
