Representatives of the Seminole Improvement District (SID) have until Tuesday, April 21 to respond to a suit filed by the Indian Trail improvement District (ITID) in an effort to maintain continued access to the M-2 Canal — a major drainage artery during hurricane season.
ITID filed the suit March 28, “to get ahead of this thing, and make sure we had access during the litigation,” which could last through the 2026 storm season or beyond, said Bernard Lebedeker of the firm Xenick Lebedeker Pepin, the attorney for ITID on the matter.
Lebedeker said he’ll be seeking an injunction to prevent SID from cutting off access while the suit moves forward before Circuit Court Judge Caryn Siperstein. While SID has not cut access to date, ITID officials felt they had to take action before hurricane season begins June 1, he said.
SID Manager Lynne Ladner and ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson referred all questions to their respective attorneys. SID attorney Seth Behn of the firm Lewis, Longman & Walker did not return calls requesting comment.
ITID President Elizabeth Accomando said this week that she could not comment directly on the ligation, but that access to the M-2 Canal is “very critical.”
“It’s the only drainage for the M-2 [Basin],” Accomando said.
The M-2 Canal is a 5.5-mile-long drainage channel running north-south through SID’s property and the City of Westlake, from near 60th Street North down to Southern Blvd. and the C-51 Canal. It drains much of ITID’s western side.
The dispute flared up in July 2025. In December 2025, SID sent ITID a letter “demanding the district do a bunch of work on its outfall structures into the canal. About $3 million worth. Plus, $300,000 a year going forward,” Lebedeker said.
ITID has documentation dating back to the mid-1960s giving ITID and others access to the canal and free use of it as long as it was not being used to irrigate orange groves, he said.
The Seminole Water Control District (later renamed) was created June 26, 1970, by the Florida Legislature, according to a search of state records.
The suit “takes into account our historic rights” to use of the canal, Lebedeker said.
“Over the years, ITID has done a lot of work on it… Frankly, it’s hard for me to understand why the issue was raised,” he said.
When it first came up in the summer of 2025, Hanson said it was an attempt to strong-arm ITID over the desire of Minto Communities USA and SID to access ITID roads for use by residents of the City of Westlake. Minto is the city’s primary developer and landowner. Lewis, Longman & Walker also represent Minto’s Westlake interests, and two of the three SID board members have direct ties to Minto.
In May 2024, Circuit Court Judge Richard Oftedal ruled against SID and Minto regarding the road connection, but the decision was appealed. On Feb. 5, 2026, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s ruling without a written opinion, leaving the May 2024 judgment in place and preserving ITID’s victory.
However, in July 2025, while the issue still was on appeal, Hanson said, “We will not be bullied or harassed for protecting all of our infrastructure in an attempt to force a one-sided settlement, so SID and Minto can gain free and uncontrolled connection to our roads.”
Accomando agreed, adding at the time, “It appears to be a retaliatory effort, even though [SID] claims they want to work together as neighbors. This isn’t very neighborly, in my opinion.”
Speaking in 2025, attorney Lebedeker added, “Minto and SID’s decision to perpetuate the dispute they lost in court by threatening to potentially flood our residents is both amoral and illegal.”
Now in 2026, Lebedeker said this week that he hopes a solution can be found without protracted ligation.
“Working this out informally makes the most sense for everyone,” he said.
