YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
A jury has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in a 2022 lawsuit filed against the city of Springfield that sought to stop green space work for the Lone Pine Bike Park.
A unanimous decision from 12 jurors was delivered yesterday in Greene County Circuit Court, according to Missouri Case.net records. The jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes.
Court records indicate the plaintiffs will prepare and submit a proposed judgment within 10 days.
Officials with the city of Springfield declined to comment on the jury's verdict. Plaintiffs' attorney Benjamin Shantz with Spencer Fane LLP could not be reached for comment by deadline.
The 2022 lawsuit – with plaintiffs listed as Art Farris, Tim Reese, Cal Wise, David Lewis, Edwin “Cookie” Rice, Patty Melton, William Wear, Susie Henry, Chip McGeehan and Dale E. Williams – alleged property owners near the 16.4-acre green space would be forced to pay for improvements they oppose at Lone Pine Bike Park, located in a wooded area between the Galloway Creek Greenway and South Lone Pine Avenue.
The plaintiffs further alleged they would be harmed by increased and illegal parking in their neighborhood, future developments in the green space, increased water runoff and inadequate stormwater drainage, and safety concerns from more bicyclist traffic on the road surrounding the green space, according to past reporting.
The property in question, located north of Battlefield Road and Lone Pine, has been set aside from development since 2003, according to court documents. Residents within the Lone Pine Greenspace Neighborhood Improvement District have paid for the green space maintenance for around 20 years through their property taxes.
Teenage mountain bikers from the Brentwood and Southern Hills neighborhoods started Lone Pine Bike Park without the city's permission, according to past reporting. After being approached by the city, Ozark Greenways Inc. joined the effort and received a $255,000 grant from Springfield-based Hatch Foundation to fund bike park upgrades, new natural-surface trails and ecological enhancements for stormwater and water quality improvements.
Schools, athletic facilities, businesses and infrastructure are among the featured projects.
The listed plantiff's can get anything they want in Spfld. That's powerful names to be messing with.
As someone who lived in Southern Hills when this all started, I can state that this was the only rational decision. Just because the city WANTS to use something (land that they do not own nor maintain) they cannot just arbitrarily start dumping large rocks and aggregate to start the bike park without even the minimal notification to the rightful owners of the property. This started wrong, and it got worse. Thank you, jurors. In this case, justice was served.
It is important to note, that the neighbors in the Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) are not only obligated to pay the maintenance, but also purchased the property from developers in 2003 and gifted the property to the City with the sole purpose of maintaining the property as greenspace. Not only did the city not talk to the NID about developing a bike park as set forth in the original documents that established the NID, but the City's concept of greenspace and the NID's expectation of greenspace did not agree. The jury found in favor of the NID.