## Facts

- Collier County approved a site development plan for a fifteen-unit condominium project on Vanderbilt Beach and issued a building permit to the owners.
- The building design resembled an inverted “T,” with a lower tier about 30 feet high and a central column about 95 feet high.
- Side-yard setbacks were measured from the lower tier’s exterior walls and extended about 30 feet.
- Neighboring condominium and community associations claimed the land development code required the setback to be calculated using the building’s overall height (including the taller central column), making the permit noncompliant.
- The County applied its longstanding interpretation of the land development code and maintained the project satisfied setback requirements.
- The associations did not appeal the permit decision to the County’s Board of Zoning Appeals, an available administrative review body.
- Instead, the associations filed a circuit court action seeking declaratory relief and mandamus to invalidate the permit based on the claimed code violation.
- Construction was completed while the case was pending; the associations did not seek a preliminary injunction to stop or delay construction.
- The circuit court dismissed the action, citing both a reasonable county code interpretation and failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

## Issues

1. Whether the associations’ declaratory and mandamus action was barred because they failed to exhaust available administrative remedies by not appealing to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
2. Whether the County’s interpretation of the land development code’s height and side-yard setback provisions was correct.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the dismissal because the associations failed to exhaust administrative remedies.
- The court held that an administrative appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals was available and designed to address disputes over the interpretation and application of the land development code.
- The court rejected using declaratory relief and mandamus to obtain first-instance judicial review of an administrative permitting decision when an administrative appeal process exists.
- The court expressly declined to affirm on the merits of the County’s code interpretation and indicated the associations’ interpretation appeared correct, but treated that view as unnecessary to the disposition.

## Legal Principles

- When an adequate administrative remedy exists, a party must pursue and complete that process before seeking judicial relief.
- A litigant may not avoid exhaustion requirements by repackaging an administrative dispute as an action for declaratory judgment or mandamus.
- Courts generally dismiss land-use challenges that bypass established administrative review procedures, absent a recognized exception such as inadequacy or futility of the administrative remedy.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed dismissal of neighboring associations’ challenge to a building permit because they bypassed the County’s administrative appeal process; judicial declaratory and mandamus remedies were unavailable as a substitute for exhausting the zoning appeals procedure, and the court did not reach a merits ruling on the setback interpretation.


Vanderbilt Shores Condo. Ass’n, Inc. v. Collier Cnty., 891 So. 2d 583 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004)