SUNSET HILLS — A ºüÀêÊÓƵ County judge has ordered Sunset Hills to pay a half million dollars in attorney fees for its “unjustified, vexatious and spiteful hostilityâ€Â to a property owner whose rezoning requests city officials repeatedly denied.Â
The withering order from ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Circuit Judge John Borbonus follows five years of litigation between Sunset Hills and a trust led by Dr. George Despotis, which sued the city in 2017 after failing to win rezoning for land along Lindbergh Boulevard between West Watson Road and Court Drive.
Despotis had operated a medical imaging center at the corner until it was destroyed by the tornado that struck the region on New Year’s Eve 2010. Despite commercial development on all sides of the roughly 5 acres he had assembled — and offers to build townhomes as a buffer for the nearby subdivision — the city denied all of his rezoning requests, which sought to allow construction of a credit union.
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The actions by the southwest ºüÀêÊÓƵ County suburb of 9,200 people appeared “personal,†the judge ruled. Despotis testified that he heard Sunset Hills’ longtime lawyer, Robert E. Jones, say that the city “was not going to lose to this family again,†testimony Borbonus found credible. It was an “obvious reference,†the judge wrote, to Sunset Hills’ 1981 loss at the Missouri Court of Appeals to Despotis’ mother, Olga Despotis, in a similar zoning dispute that forced the city to rezone the property where the former medical office was built.Â
Sunset Hills’ attorney in the prior case was Jones’ father, Robert C. Jones Jr.
Robert E. Jones — whose Clayton firm of Curtis, Heinz, Garrett & O’Keefe specializes in representing many of ºüÀêÊÓƵ County’s nearly 90 municipalities — said in an email that he didn’t recall saying that the city wasn’t going to lose to the Despotis family again.
“The city defended its legislative decision to maintain reasonable and long-standing residential zoning for the subject properties,†he wrote. “I will not criticize or comment further on the Judge’s ruling because this matter is in active litigation.â€
Sunset Hills filed a notice of appeal last week.
City Administrator Brittany Gillett, responding to an inquiry sent to Mayor Pat Fribis and other members of the board of aldermen, declined to comment but said the city had spent just under $40,000 out of pocket on the litigation since 2017.
After a March trial, the judge in July ordered Sunset Hills to rezone the property, which sits mostly vacant and undeveloped along busy Lindbergh Boulevard. Borbonus followed that up with an Oct. 20 order for the city to pay $509,000 in attorney fees to Despotis’ lawyers because of what he said were “spiteful†actions from the city.Â
Despotis attorney Jill Rembusch of Brentwood-based Hein, Schneider and Bond, said 30,000 to 40,000 cars pass the Despotis property every day.Â
“It’s really stunning that the city maintains someone wants to build a house right there,†Rembusch said.Â
Prominent area engineer George Stock — a veteran of zoning across the region — testified that the city’s handling of the Despotis petition was “perfunctory, very unusual and not consistent†with his experience, Borbonus noted. And Sunset Hills officials ignored their own staff’s recommendations and those of its land use consultant to rezone the property.Â
“The city’s proffered explanations, excuses and rationales at trial were not credible, especially when viewed against the overwhelming amount of commercial development it previously approved, and continued to approve, all around the proposed development area and along both sides of the Lindbergh Boulevard corridor, while simultaneously denying the trust’s petitions,†Borbonus wrote.Â
Editor's note: This story corrects the title of ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Circuit Judge John Borbonus.