The owner of the Paramount Theatre is legally challenging the Town Council’s denial of its application for zoning approvals that would have allowed it to open a 475-member private club in the historic building.
Owner Lester Woerner, under the name WEG Paramount LLC, is contesting the council’s decision through two legal actions, Town Attorney Joanne M. O’Connor told the council at its meeting on Tuesday, September 10.
One action has triggered a mitigation process under the Florida Land Use and Environmental Resolution Act (FLUEDRA), which is part of the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act. A special magistrate who will preside over the proceedings is expected to be named within days, O’Connor said.
The other action is a petition for writ of certiorari, which is an appeal in which WEG Paramount is requesting that a judge review the council’s decision. It was filed August 12 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. It has been put on hold until after the FLUEDRA mediation process is completed, O’Connor said.
The town has hired Seth Behn, an attorney and certified land use planner with the law firm of Lewis Longman Walker, to represent it against WEG Paramount, O’Connor said. The firm has a local office in West Palm Beach.
WEG Paramount is being represented by attorney John Shubin of the Shubin Law Group in West Palm Beach, according to court documents.
The council at its July 10, 2024, meeting denied Woerner’s application seeking special exception approvals for the club, which was to be the centerpiece of a renovation and adaptive reuse of the 40,000-square-foot building at 139 N. County Road.
The decision occurred at the end of a marathon meeting in which council members heard from town staff, legal representatives, and many residents, most of whom were opposed to the club because of concerns about traffic and parking impacts.
Council members said the club would result in an intensified use of the site that would adversely impact neighbors and traffic and parking conditions in the neighborhood, where traffic is often heavily congested during the busy winter season months.
Council members Lew Crampton and Ted Cooney dissented in the council’s 3-2 decision, saying they preferred to negotiate with Woerner. But Woerner insisted on an up-or-down vote on the club.
Woerner and his attorney James Crowley countered that the club would not be an intensification of use because their application would have limited club occupancy to 412 people during weekday evenings and on weekends. Weekday mornings and lunch periods would have been capped at 150 and 250 people, respectively.
Following the vote, Woerner, who is a Palm Beach resident, said he has worked for more than two years and spent a lot of money attempting to create a viable development plan that the town would approve. He also vowed “to look at all remedies we can from a legal standpoint because we believe the town was disserved today.”
Woerner and his son Lester bought the Paramount building in 2021 for $14 million.
The Joseph Urban-designed building operated as a cinema from 1927 until 1980. It was designated a town landmark in 1982 and renovated for retail, office and church uses in 1985. There has been no major renovation since.
(The Palm Beach Civic Association and Palm Beach Police and Fire Foundation are among the building’s approximately 16 tenants).
Mediation
FLUEDRA operates under a special magistrate in a two-stage process. In the first stage, the magistrate acts as mediator between the property owner and the government entity, O’Connor said.
The process is limited to 165 days unless both sides agree otherwise.
If an agreement is not reached, the magistrate then, in the second stage, acts like an administrative law judge who holds a public hearing and then issues findings of fact and conclusions of law. The town and Woerner would both be free to accept, modify, or reject the magistrate’s findings and conclusions, O’Connor said.
The two sides were not able to agree on the choice of a special magistrate, so the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings will appoint the magistrate from a blind pool, O’Connor said.
The town has gone “above and beyond” in giving notice of the legal actions to property owners adjacent to the Paramount Theatre building and to other owners who expressed objections, O’Connor said.
Assuming there is a public hearing, neighboring condominium owners have written a letter indicating their desire to participate as “substantially affected parties,” O’Connor said.
John Eubanks, a West Palm Beach attorney representing owners at the neighboring Sun and Surf condominiums, told the council his clients may also be interested in seeking “intervenor” status, in which a judge would grant them permission to join the case as a party to the lawsuit even though they have not been named as a defendant.
