Townhall meeting expected to make headlines in City of Malabar
On Monday night, things could get heated at the City of Malabar's townhall meeting as a zoning issue receives its final vote.
MALABAR, Fla. - A small town zoning issue that touches on concerns about coastal preservation, has given some unwanted attention to the City of Malabar.
A townhall meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Monday is expected to include the final vote.
The owners of the Yellow Dog Café restaurant would like to expand and become a boutique bed and breakfast.
The Yellow Dog located on the Indian River Lagoon offers romantic views and highly acclaimed meals, but because of long-standing zoning restrictions, it can’t get any bigger.
Malabar councilman throws paper-ball at woman
A woman wants a Malabar councilman who threw a ball of paper at her to be investigated for claims of assault. Dawn Danielson is also demanding that District 4 Councilman Dick Korn resign. The conflict stemmed over a re-zoning development of land near the Indian River Lagoon.
That is unless the City of Malabar approves a re-zoning order.
Hundreds of residents are opposed to that, and have signed petitions calling on officials to tell Yellow Dog “no.”
Two weeks ago, the town council took a vote.
There are five council members, one recused himself from the vote because he owns land on the lagoon and stayed out of the vote to avoid a conflict of interest
Of the four remaining council-members, three voted yes and one voted no.
Yellow Dog had the outcome favorable to the restaurant.
Then, the mayor vetoed the council.
Now, the council has the power to overrule the mayor’s veto if there is a super majority.
That means Yellow Dog needs four yes votes Monday night. The “no vote” would have to flip.
Because so many people are passionate about this, tension has been building. At the last town council meeting, citizen activist Dawn Danielson was handing out flyers to the council members. They were a copy of a page from Malabar’s book of ordinances.
District 4 Councilman Dick Korn wadded up the paper and tossed it at Danielson’s head.
Danielson got hit on the face with the paper ball and told Korn he had just committed an assault in public.
An agitated Korn, yelled he didn’t want Danielson’s “garbage,” but said he wasn't aiming for her.
The video from the council meeting, showing the paper ball incident, captured an unusual amount of local media attention.
Print, radio, television - all running stories on Korn’s temper tantrum.
FOX 35 interviewed Danielson on Friday.
She is calling for the councilman to be criminally charged and says he is unfit for office.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is investigating and charges could be possible.
The News Stations reached out to Korn on Monday, but has not heard back.
Other council members declined interviews, telling FOX 35 that the story was putting Malabar in a bad light.
Typically, a Malabar townhall meeting only attracts a crowd of about 20 people.
But, many more people packed into the last townhall meeting because of this issue and multiple deputies were present.
Malabar has a sheriff's office substation attached to city hall, and the additional deputies are expected again Monday night.