Shoe Creek Development Challenged

    On Monday, Central citizens Dave Freneaux, Mike Mannino and Mike Stephens filed a “Petition for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief” in the 19th Judicial District Court to halt the construction of the Settlement on Shoe Creek on Sullivan Road across from Walmart.  
    The Petition asks for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop the development from proceeding until a hearing before Judge Wilson Fields scheduled for next Thursday at 9 AM.  Citizen involvement heightened greatly once the public understood that 250 of the Shoe Creek project’s 697 residences were to be apartments.
    Freneaux, Mannino and Stephens maintain that Central’s ordinances allow only 41 apartments in this Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), and filed the Petition naming Mayor Shelton and Council Members Evans, Fralick, Messina and Vance as defendants.
    The Petition also asserts that Mayor Junior Shelton did not have the authority, without council approval, to sign a contract with another developer to provide the second entrance needed for the Shoe Creek project.  The contract obligates the City of Central to assume ownership and spend taxpayer dollars maintaining streets in the Central Square development which are currently privately owned.
    Judge Fields was expected to rule on the TRO yesterday, but no final decision was available as of deadline for today’s paper.  At next Thursday’s hearing,  attorneys for the three Central plaintiffs and attorneys for the City of Central will present their arguments and submit the matter to the Judge Fields for a decision.