The southern end of Pinellas’ barrier islands, St. Pete Beach is caught up in a development uprising partially fueled by the city’s insistence on fighting voters with lawyers. For the better part of a year, city commissioners have been trying to keep four petition initiatives off the ballot. But last week, a unanimous appellate court panel issued what appears to be an unassailable opinion. Voters should be able to decide whether their city must submit growth plan amendments affecting six or more parcels to a referendum, it wrote, because state law only prohibits referendums for amendments dealing with five parcels or less.

Lawyers call this expression unius est cxdusio alterius, or “express mention of one thing is the exclusion of another.’ St. Pete Beach commissioners have spent more than $150,000 in legal fees to reach this stage. Along the way, they have managed to lose a pro-development commissioner to the March city elections and stir up a hornet’s nest over plans to redevelop the main commercial area. Yet they still haven’t learned their lesson. Their attorneys already have filed yet another motion, which they characterize as seeking “clarification’ but instead berates the court for “a leap in logic’ and demands a rehearing.

The redevelopment plan itself, more than four years in the making, is a reasonable compromise aimed at maintaining the resort character of St. Pete Beach. But commissioners have ignored the passionate political environment that surrounds high-rise and intense development in a state that has seen more than its share. Since the beginning, unfortunately, the commission has reacted to the petitions mainly with indignation. One leader of the pro-development forces even labeled opponents as “mentally unstable whackos.”

Commissioners are scheduled on Friday to decide whether to put all the issues on the Nov. 7 ballot, and they need to quit using the lawyers to run interference. Beach voters have petitioned for six different ballot questions aimed at reining in development and this is a debate that needs to be won or lost in the political arena. The longer the commission avoids the inevitable, the more it will only inflame the opposition.