Attorney for Sarasota Audubon explains nonprofit’s activities at the Celery Fields
Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge Hunter W. Carroll has agreed to allow the Sarasota Audubon Society to intervene in a complaint that the Texas-based home construction company D.R. Horton and the Smith family that owns property next to the Celery Fields have filed against Sarasota County, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
The Sarasota Audubon Society submitted its motion to the court on May 26, records show. Attorney Shai Ozery, of the Pompano Beach law firm Hartsell Ozery, explains in the document that the nonprofit organization “was actively engaged in the [Sarasota County Commission] proceedings pertaining to [the efforts of D.R. Horton, the Cindy L. Smith Revocable Living Trust and Matt and Cindy Smith] to persuade the board members to rezone 50.82 acres of the Smiths’ land — known as Smith Properties — to construct a single-family home community with 126 dwellings.
On May 27, Judge Carroll issued his order granting the Sarasota Audubon Society the right to intervene in the case and called for it to file a response to the D.R. Horton-Smith family complaint by June 15…