A May 5 hearing will determine if two Athens residents have legal standing in a lawsuit that questions the validity of city ordinances permitting construction of a debated retirement center, according to an April 14 journal entry by county Judge Michael Ward.
The lawsuit disputes the legitimacy of two City Council ordinances that essentially gave National Church Residences, a Columbus developer, the permission it needed to build the center just off Stimson Avenue.
Ward, a judge with the Athens County Court of Common Pleas, ruled March 22 that of the ten original appellants in the case, only residents Christine Fahl and Patricia Rae Stokes had legal standing.
In a memo filed yesterday, city Law Director Garry Hunter requested that testimony at the May 5 hearing address only the residents' claim that construction of the center will directly cause their properties to decrease in value because of increases in traffic and in the risk of flooding.
Ward has ruled previously that Fahl and Stokes had properly voiced their objections and developed prima facie cases, meaning their property value arguments were strong enough to support the case unless the city could present sufficient evidence to the contrary.
At the May 5 hearing, such contradictory evidence will be offered by representatives of the city and Ohio University, which owns the land but would lease it to National Church Residences for next to nothing. The city and OU requested the hearing in an April 14 filing.
Fahl and Stokes previously had filed a request for a different hearing to present evidence supporting their claim that construction of the retirement center will decrease their properties' values. That motion will be considered if one or both of the women are found to have sufficient standing after the May 5 hearing, according to Ward's most recent journal entry.
The city's April 14 motion requested that if Fahl and Stokes are found to have standing after the hearing, the court should limit its review of the case to evidence presented in the women's original transcript.
In other news related to the retirement center, a referendum about one of the ordinances remains tentatively scheduled for the November ballot, though city representatives had requested that the Athens County Board of Elections remove it. City representatives told the board they would file a legal motion if the board did not respond in a set time frame. No motion has yet been filed, though the board did not directly respond.
County Prosecutor C. David Warren, the board's legal representative, said yesterday that he sent a letter to Hunter indicating the board won't get in your way if or when the referendum issue ends up in court.
One way or another
that's where it's going to end up anyhow Warren said.
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Kantele Franko
