Posted: 12/18/07
County to initiate litigation against city of Caledonia
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The ongoing saga of the Houston County criminal justice center (CJC) could be headed down another avenue, actually two avenues. Attorney Scott Anderson, who is an expert in government zoning issues, recommended the county board take a two-pronged approach to the project that appears to have reached a stalemate.
At the Dec. 11 meeting, Anderson instructed the county board to get the ball rolling as far as litigation against the city of Caledonia. The county's plans to construct an 82,000 square foot facility that would include a 42-cell jail, offices for the sheriff's department, county attorney, court services, and two courtrooms just east of the existing courthouse, required two zoning variances and the vacation of a portion of Washington Street.
After listening to several hours of testimony (most of which was against the downtown location) at two public hearings this past summer, the Caledonia City Council denied the variance requests. The county decided to withdraw the street vacation request, since the variance requests had already been denied.
The litigation against the city would be an appeal to have a court decide if the city's denials were legal.
The second approach Anderson recommended was to establish a committee made up of two members of the county board, several members of the city council, and staff that would review two alternative sites on the west edge of Caledonia for the CJC.
"The city has said they don't want the CJC downtown. Fine. What about the other sites? Would they change their zoning ordinances for the other sites? We need to sit down and talk with them. The two-pronged approach is litigation and negotiation," Anderson explained.
"By initiating the litigation, that doesn't mean it has to go to court," Anderson continued. "In 92 percent of the cases I have handled, the cases have been settled before they reached the courts. But it is a very good process for getting negotiations moving forward. This project has been stalled for too long. The meter is running. The costs involved in starting litigation and making something work through negotiations are much less than sitting back and waiting. Construction costs will continue to go up. Something needs to be done. I feel the county needs to take a friendly, but adversarial position. This is what I feel you must do."
The county board agreed with Anderson's recommendations and unanimously approved a motion to initiate litigation against the city of Caledonia concerning the zoning variance denials.
The county board also agreed with Anderson's second suggestion and named commissioners Ann Thompson and Larry Graf to be on a committee with the mission of working out zoning issues at two separate potential sites on the west edge of Caledonia.
Caledonia Argus
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