Lawsuit filed over zoning in Johnson
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008
Johnson’s Planned Unit Development (PUD ) process is being tested in Washington County Circuit Court. The city was named Tuesday as a co-defendant along with developer Tracy Hoskins in a lawsuit brought by Patrick Burton, owner of the Farmers Insurance Agency off Hendrix Heights in Johnson, challenging the process the city used to grant Hoskins his PUD zoning for The Steps at Joyce.
Burton claims the city did not follow proper procedure in granting Hoskins the PUD zoning and Hoskins did not correctly submit everything he needed to get zoning.
Burton deferred comment to his attorney, Jim Crouch, who would not comment on the lawsuit.
Johnson City Attorney Danny Wright said he could not comment because he had just received a copy of the complaints on Wednesday and had yet to read through the material.
Johnson City officials, on the advice of Wright, also would not comment.
Hoskins said he worked with city officials to make sure the process was followed exactly and the city’s planning commission even called a meeting Dec. 31 to make sure “ all the I’s were dotted and all the T’s were crossed” on the rezoning and preliminary plat approval.
Hoskins said he’s not worried that Burton claims protocol was not followed.
“ I know it was followed and followed again, ” he said. “ That’s why in December we went all the way back to the Planning Commission — to make sure. ”
This is the first PUD zoning the commission and council have granted since it enacted the PUD ordinance in late 2007.
“ There’s bound to be some hiccups, ” Hoskins said.
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