Shoe Creek Lawsuit Headed to Appeal

    At a hearing on Monday, Central citizens Dave Freneaux, Mike Mannino, and Mike Stephens requested a new trial in the lawsuit challenging the legality of the city allowing 250 apartments to be built in the Shoe Creek development across from WalMart. The density calculator in Central’s zoning code allows for only 41 apartments.  The City of Central opposed the motion and Judge Fields did not grant a new trial.
    The request was made so that evidence could be introduced and witness testimony could be heard which was made unavailable in the first trial.  In the October trial, the City of Central opposed the use of a private process server to serve subpoenas.  That action by the city led to the trial proceeding without any witness testimony, and without the evidence that those witnesses would corroborate. 
    The citizen-plaintiffs asked for the new trial on multiple grounds, including the withholding of documents by the City of Central from Public Records Requests in the weeks leading up to the trial. The continued withholding of those Public Records has resulted in a second lawsuit which is currently being heard by Judge Don Johnson.
    Dave Freneaux, one of the plaintiffs and a columnist for Central Speaks, commented, “Fighting the government is a tough thing to do.  They have all of the resources of Central’s taxpayers and have not been shy about using those resources liberally.  The city’s multiple law firms and attorneys have gone to great lengths to see that evidence and testimony would never be seen and heard in court.  The only option the citizens of Central have left is to send this to the Court of Appeal to have the evidence considered.”
    The plaintiffs also produced an email discovered in a Public Records Request in which Central’s attorney and zoning expert Mark Balkin advised that the traffic generated by the Shoe Creek TND “is not going to serve the people living in the development or the traffic already on Sullivan.” Balkin also advised Mayor Shelton that the location and construction of the extension of Wax Road to Hooper Road be resolved before final City Council approval of the Shoe Creek development. City of Central attorneys did not dispute the existence of the email, but argued that it was too late to consider this evidence.