The next skirmish over whether a combination grocery, office, retail and fuel center should be built in the heart of Walden will be fought on a new battlefield.
Walden residents Linda T. Collins and Gary D. Smith have joined Anthony Wheeler – who owns 14 acres of land adjoining the site of the proposed complex – in filing a lawsuit asking Hamilton County Circuit Court to stop the proposed development.
The three are suing both LOP, LLC – which the lawsuit describes as an “inactive Tennessee limited liability corporation whose official office is 2288 Gunbarrel Road, Chattanooga” – and the town of Walden.
“The petitioners ask this court for a writ of certiorari,” the lawsuit declares. “Alternatively, the petitioners ask this court for declaratory judgment in their favor pursuant to Tenn. Code . . . .”
According to the complaint, filed by Douglass Berry and Jenna W. Fullerton of Miller & Martin PLLC, Walden Mayor William Trohanis and Alderwoman Sarah McKenzie violated Walden’s land use plan when they voted to rezone the former site of Lines Orchids to village commercial, even though the proposed development did not meet Village Commercial requirements.
Following a lengthy review of steps taken, and not taken, by both Walden town officials and the Hamilton County Planning Commission, the lawsuit asked the court to issue a Writ of Certiorari requiring the town of Walden “to certify and file with the clerk of this court, the entire record of this case, including:
- All exhibits and all entries made in connection therewith;
- All records created by or in the possession of town employees or elected officials;
- Records relating to any public meetings or hearings, public notices, agenda packets, drafts of the ordinance, and the minutes (and) transcripts of all meetings and hearings held before the town board of mayor and aldermen referenced herein;
- The exhibits and documents considered by the board at such meetings.
Plaintiffs asked the court to notify the respondents of these requirements, “the answer to be filed within 30 days of the filing of the record.”
Further, the complaint asks that “upon the hearing of this cause, the court set aside the action of the board of mayor and aldermen of the town of Walden and, further, that the court declare the (rezoning) ordinance to be invalid, as without a rational basis and inconsistent with the zoning ordinance and in violation of the procedural protections contained in the state zoning enabling legislation and the (town’s) zoning ordinance.”