In a unanimous vote, the Naples City Council OK'd zoning changes that took the house that once belonged to Naples' first mayor from historic designation to a residential lot.
Rezoning the house was a condition of a deal the City Council approved in September to sell the dilapidated house to neighbors Robert and Pamela Sibcy and settle years of litigation over the house.
A previous City Council agreed in 1998 to buy the house as part of a plan to save it from demolition, but the plan fell apart.
After failing to get a three-year extension of time to buy the house from the city, the Collier County Historical Society exercised its option to buy the house with help from an unnamed third party. The City Council cited concerns about whether the third-party deal would preserve the house. The city declared the Historical Society in default of the 1998 deal and the sales contract, alleging that the group had not met a deadline to pay a $40,000 sales deposit and had violated a 1998 land-use approval.
The $4 million deal with the Sibcys includes deed restrictions intended to preserve the house, but the restrictions expire in five years. The Sibcys have said they intend to restore the house and use it as a guest house.
Besides the $4 million purchase price, the Sibcys have agreed to pay off more than $1 million the city owes to the Historical Society for improvements to the house.
Pamela Sibcy sued the city in December 2000, after the Historical Society defaulted on its payments to the city and city officials seized the house.
Sibcy claimed she had rights to buy the house because the former owner of her home had right of first refusal to buy the Wilkinson House if the Historical Society defaulted.
In October 2001, a Collier County circuit judge dealt the Sibcys a defeat by ruling that the arrangement between the Historical Society and the city was unconstitutional.
An appeal had been scheduled to be heard last month, but it was canceled when the city and Sibcys made their deal.
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Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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