Resident drops lawsuit challenging utilities referendum

Resident Carol Kosberg has dropped her lawsuit challenging the town’s plan to pay for burying all overhead utilities on the island.

Kosberg, a South End condo owner, sued the town last year, alleging it used misleading ballot language in a March 2016 referendum in which voters narrowly approved up to $90 million in bonds to finance the undergrounding project.

Kosberg dropped the lawsuit on Wednesday, just days before a hearing was scheduled Monday before Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Cymonie Rowe. Rowe was to consider the town’s motion for a judgment in its favor without a trial.

Kosberg’s was one of two lawsuits challenging the ballot language. The other, by South End resident Arthur Goldmacher, was dismissed by Rowe in June. In that case, Rowe found the ballot language was neither misleading nor inconsistent and did not violate any laws.

Goldmacher has appealed to Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal. As of Wednesday, no briefs had been filed and a date had not been set for oral arguments.

The Town Council, meanwhile, has approved an interim financing plan to launch the early phases of the utility burial, which is planned to be accomplished in eight phases, over nine years. Phase one begins this summer in the North End, between Onondaga Avenue and the Palm Beach Inlet, and in the South End between Sloan’s Curve and the south town limit.