Suit looms over house numbers

long-running property dispute on the Tennessee state line looks likely to go to court, after a group of landowners said this week that the Madison County Commission has still not answered their concerns.

Lisa Potter, spokeswoman for the group, told Friday's meeting of the commission that she had been trying to get a house number for her land for two years. "I am going to file a lawsuit on Monday," she said.

County Attorney Julian Butler, Commission Chairman Mike Gillespie and Commissioner Roger Jones, who is responsible for northeast Madison County, cited the threat of litigation in declining to comment on the group's complaint.

The dispute centers on several hundred acres of land on Hale Mountain, an undeveloped part of the county northeast of New Market and bordering Tennessee. The land lies in Alabama, but is only accessible by road from Tennessee.

Potter, her parents Bill and Peggy Hopkins, and family friend George Bailey say they need house numbers to get building permits, which they require to develop the property. Potter, who bought 40 acres from her parents, wants to build a house where she, her husband and two children can live; the Hopkinses want to build their retirement home.

Potter said in an interview Thursday that since she first approached the county department that handles house numbering in late 2001, she has been told different things by different county employees and county attorneys - and given nothing in writing.

Eventually, she said, the county offered the group two house numbers right at the state line, but on the condition that no more could ever be issued. Peggy Hopkins took one, but the other remains unclaimed.

"If I accepted that house number, I'd be land-locking all the other landowners who wouldn't ever be able to get a house number," said Potter.

"We can't do nothing without house numbers," said George Bailey. "It's against the Constitution of the United States - they're trying to deprive us of the benefits of our land."

In a heated exchange at Friday's meeting, Potter criticized County Attorney Julian Butler, who had promised to send her lawyer a written explanation at the last commission meeting on Feb. 23.

"As of yesterday, no one had heard anything," said Potter. "If his reason why I can't have my house number is as simple as he says it is, I don't see why I can't get a response."

Butler said at Friday's meeting that a six-page letter had been drafted by a member of his staff on Feb. 24, and would be sent on Monday. He would not comment further.

"Ms. Potter has threatened litigation," he said. "Because she has threatened litigation, I think we should handle this lawyer to lawyer."

Commissioner Mo Brooks, who told Potter at Friday's meeting that it might be possible to engineer a compromise allocating house letters instead of numbers, said later that the case was complex.

"It complicates matters that there is not a road from the state of Alabama that goes through the state of Alabama to this property," he said. "I hope that they will be able to resolve it short of litigation. But sometimes you have to have litigation to figure out what the law is."

The group has retained a lawyer, Bruce Ables, who, in a letter to Butler on Feb. 17, warned that if the group was not awarded house numbers, they would file suit and "ask the judge to order the Madison County Department of Public Works to issue the house numbers, which I have no doubt the court will do."

Potter, meanwhile, said that if the lawsuit is successful, she plans to sue for damages. "They think we're just a group of poor stupid rednecks who can't afford to hire an attorney, and that we're just blowing smoke," she said. "There are a lot of landowners in Madison County that are in the same boat, and I don't think they realize it."

"An ammendment to the constitution to give zoning power to this county's commission was soundly defeated a couple of years ago."

Aye! That's because we Alabama voters know far, far better than to give such power to our petty bureaucrats.

Actions that you have described are why I left the Democratic Peoples Republic of Madison County Alabama years ago to deal in real estate as I feel is appropriate to my and my familie's desires and needs.

The main problem for the gov't is that legal access, dedicated roads, need to be provided to all lots, parcels, subdivisions. This is a hugh problem in the West, and in particular in Alaska. The platting authority ensures that roads are dedicated. Easements do not suffice since they involve dual ownership--public and private combined. Since the theory of the modern state has not been fully developed, most public officials do not understand this necessity, and private persons often enough get by until a fateful day when they find they have no legal access.

Land use zoning is a farce the way it is implemented, and probably should be up to the land owners since gov't cannot enforce it uniformly but only in a few specific cases where gov't can acquire ownership themselves.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.