The nonprofit tied to Coral Gables' War Memorial Youth Center has taken the city to court, accusing officials of stonewalling records requests it filed back in January while a decades-old deed restriction on the property remains unresolved. The War Memorial Youth Center Association says it paid $192 for the city to search its files and still came up empty on records it considers eight months overdue.
The complaint, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Sept. 18, accuses Coral Gables of violating Florida's public records law by failing to properly search for or hand over documents tied to three separate requests made in January, according to the Miami Herald. The association, a private not-for-profit civic group connected to the youth center, wanted records covering everything from proposals for the property's future use to the legal basis for any withheld documents, the funding relationship between the city and the association, and the constraints imposed by the youth center's deed and its reverter clause.
Jane Muir, the attorney representing the association, said the group sought court intervention before the city's November election. The group maintains it has provided everything legally required of it.
A Deed Clause With Teeth
At the heart of the fight is a restriction the association attached when it deeded the youth center to Coral Gables decades ago. The clause requires the city to never change the name of the youth center and to continue using the property for youth recreational activities for children in Coral Gables — or ownership could revert back to the association, per the same Miami Herald report. The city currently owns, operates and maintains the facility.
It's not the first time that clause has been tested. The association deeded the land to the city in 1958 with those same use-and-name restrictions attached, and in 1968 the city challenged the reverter clause in court while trying to relocate Coral Gables Elementary onto the site. Courts ultimately upheld the association's ability to activate the clause, and the city abandoned its elementary-school plan, according to the Miami Herald's earlier report.
City Freezes Renovation Plans
Coral Gables commissioners voted 4-1 earlier this year to freeze renovation plans at the youth center, aside from routine maintenance, until the reverter-clause dispute gets sorted out. Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara have all said they want the clause removed, with Lago describing it as a potential “cloud on the title” and Anderson calling it vague and not reciprocal.
Lago has also raised concerns about accessing the association's financial filings, even as he insists he has no interest in selling or changing the youth center itself. He has denied accusations that commissioners are angling to develop or lease out the property, and said Coral Gables has actually expanded its park footprint during his tenure.
Somerset Academy Dispute Adds Fuel
The association has also alleged that the city may have directed the youth center's athletic fields to be rented out to Somerset Academy. The city disputes that characterization directly: it says Somerset Academy never received authorization to use the fields, never actually used them, and is not permitted to use them. Coral Gables says no contract, lease or operational agreement was ever executed with the charter school, even though city officials reviewed a request from Somerset Academy to use the fields for daytime physical education and discussed it over several months.
Martha Pantin, speaking for the city, said Somerset Academy never received authorization or facility use. Lago separately said the school did not use and will not use the fields. Still, the record shows city officials at one point explored granting Somerset Academy a rental permit — then-city manager Peter Iglesias reportedly told a resident named Fred Couceyro in March 2023 that the youth center was not for rent, and Couceyro in turn told a Somerset parent that August that the program process could begin.
A Ballot Measure Looms in November
Coral Gables voters will decide in November on a referendum, sponsored by Lago, asking whether the city should require at least 60% voter approval in a special election before selling, exchanging, conveying or leasing certain city-owned recreational property — including parks, recreational facilities, golf courses and open park space — for 10 years or longer. Muir has said the timing of the association's lawsuit was deliberate, seeking court intervention ahead of that vote.
The city has said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit as of the Miami Herald's report, and Lago said Coral Gables will vigorously defend itself against what he called meritless claims. The War Memorial Youth Center Association, which has existed for more than 80 years and says it has about two dozen active members, remains active in funding the center's summer camps, according to the city's own history of the facility, which notes the current building was dedicated on Dec. 7, 1956, after the Youth Center relocated to a new five-acre site purchased from the University of Miami; the original 48-lot Andalusia Avenue site had been assembled in 1944 and later sold.
