The board for Gulf Breeze shopping center Harbourtown decided it wants to maintain its right to a widely used easement and “back way” shortcut to the property that was cut off when the owner of a neighboring shopping center installed a fence along his property line.
Harbourtown Board Vice-Chair Ron Ruben was the only dissenting vote on the seven-member board who wanted to “leave Mr. Green alone.”
The remainder of the board approved a motion for Harbourtown to maintain its right to the easement and ask the city to revoke the permit for the fence.
“I opposed it,” Ruben said. “I said leave the fence there and close that easement because it reduces the amount of traffic that comes through Harbourtown. The only people that should be traveling on Mr. Green’s property are the owners, invitees and guests of Harbourtown.”
The wooden fence was built at the end of April 2026 by Christopher Green, the owner of Sea Green Center next door to Harbourtown. For more than 30 years, people have used Green’s property as a cut-through to get to Harbourtown and McAbee Court.
Green said the fence would help him cut down on maintenance expenses and liability, and protect parking for people who patronize his tenants’ businesses.
He only got as far as the frame and a few boards before work was halted.
Gulf Breeze Director of Community Services Shane Carmichael said the city has already revoked the permit due to discrepancies that were discovered after it had been granted and people started complaining about the fence.
Carmichael said the property owner’s written description of the project in the permit stated the easement would be closed, but his drawing of the fence showed it leaving the easement open.
Carmichael said the work is on hold until the property owners come to an agreement about the easement.
Green said he has no intention of taking the fence down and he wants to finish building it.
“How do you stop people from driving through your property and causing the damage? What can you do to protect yourself?” Green said. “Well, the obvious thing to do is block it off, and since they can’t park over there anyway, what’s the difference?”
Green said he has wanted to install a fence for years, but he didn’t because of an old parking license agreement that allowed patrons of Harbourtown’s 44 shops and businesses to park on his property—an agreement that was made when both shopping centers were first developed.
He said that parking license recently expired, and he didn’t see the point in allowing access to the easement on his property.
Harbourtown board member Lisa Newell said Harbourtown’s right to the easement is in perpetuity and the board must agree to nullify their right to use it, which they may do in the future, but not now.
“We definitely have the paperwork on our side that shows that we have a perpetual easement and the right to go and travel across this property,” Newell said. “We definitely do want to maintain our ingress-egress because it’s going to cause a problem for not only Harbortown, but for the city.”
Green said he intends to stick to his guns.
“There’s a lot more to it than that attorney who put the word ‘perpetuity’ in there,” Green said. “I’m not going to venture an opinion one way or the other, but Florida’s got some of the best laws on the books for property owners, period. It just sounds unfair to me to burden someone else’s property forever.”
The partially-built fence blocked the longtime cut-through people use to get to Harbourtown from McAbee Court, which runs behind and through both properties.
People have continued to park in Harbourtown and climb over the unfinished fence despite “No Trespassing” signs.
Bill and Kiley Manning recently opened two businesses in Harbourtown in Gulf Breeze, Luxpoint Real Estate and Wild Lemon, which offers Pilates.
They like the neighborhood feel of the shopping center but say that it has been impacted by the fence.
“Convenience, accessibility and it’s a neighborhood shopping center,” Bill Manning said. “We need to provide access to the neighbors, because right now, we’re rerouting traffic. The traffic is going probably a mile out of their way. I feel like it’s less safe to turn right out onto Highway 98. I also think that we should probably be helping Mr. Green with the maintenance.”
Newell said other tenants are worried it will cut down on business and foot traffic.
Ruben, the Harbourtown Board vice chair, likes the fence because he says many drivers are just passing through to Pensacola Beach or to get around Highway 98.
He said two of his employees’ cars were hit by drivers cutting through the shopping centers.
“One was a hit-and-run and the other one was somebody who was late traveling too quickly and ran into my employees,” Ruben said. “We don’t have that traffic anymore now that the fence is up.”
Ruben said Harbourtown already has two access points and the easement on Green’s property would still be problematic, even if he took down the fence, because drivers who use it also have to cross an easement owned by neighboring subdivision Bahama Bay before they get to McAbee Court, a public street.
Ruben said Harbourtown and Bahama Bay ended the agreement that allowed Harbourtown to use it.
“We, Harbourtown, already have two entrances,” Ruben said. “We can go out to Highway 98, or we can go out the back entrance to Soundview Trail. It’s just that a lot of people like going through this way because it’s a little bit faster than going around the Sound View Trail.”
Newell said she hopes the issue won’t come to litigation. Green says his attorney continues to discuss the situation with the attorney representing Harbourtown.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gulf Breeze businessman keeping fence despite pushback from Harbourtown
Reporting by Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
