Ramirez’s attorneys point to First Amendment rights
A Bradenton law firm that represents Siesta Key business and property owner Michael Holderness has threatened legal action against another Siesta resident, Lourdes Ramirez, if she persists in making public remarks about the value of vacant beach lots that Holderness is seeking to transfer to Sarasota County, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
In return for that property, the settlement called for Holderness to turn over to the county four vacant beach lots seaward of North Beach Road on Siesta Key.
Ramirez publicly has expressed to the commissioners her opposition to the conveyance of the 162 Beach Road land to Holderness. She has stressed that the county bought that property in 2017 for $1.4 million out of the funds set aside for the county’s Neighborhood Parkland Acquisition Program, which dates to 2005. (See the related article on that program and a related land acquisition program.)
Ramirez also has emphasized publicly that the lots Holderness is to transfer to the county were valued at approximately $84,000, as shown on the website of Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst…