News : Deja sued: Board of Adjustment challenged again in court

The Benton County Board of Adjustment – a five-member panel of unpaid volunteers that often goes for years without meeting at all – has met several times in the several months to take action on two separate land use issues.

And in each of those two cases, the decision of the Board of Adjustment has resulted in a lawsuit filed by someone who opposed the board's decision.

The most-recent lawsuit involves the board's decision not to review the approval of the Benton County Board of Supervisors of the land use change that allows Coots Materials to build a sand pit north of Vinton, on 24th Avenue Drive.

Rodney and Jackie Fisher filed the suit, challenging the legality of the supervisors' approval of the sand pit, and also challenging the decision of the Board of Adjustment to not review that decision.

The Certiorari petition, filed on July 13, asks the court to vacate the supervisors' decision, as well as to direct the Board of Adjustment to review all appeals. At the meeting in June, the Board of Adjustment determined that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the appeal, because it came from the Fishers, and not the owners of the land in question. (See that story HERE.)

Dave Coots, owner of Coots Materials, Inc., is not mentioned in the law suit. He said his company is continuing its progress on the sand pit, which is expected to be in use by next year.

The Fisher's attorney is Jennifer Zahradnik, who is also the plaintiff in the earlier lawsuit filed against the Board of Adjustment. Zahradnik had represented Gary and Jill Marlow in the hearings concerning Red Shed Auto Repair.

After a meeting in which Zahradnik negotiated with Brown's attorney and received several concessions, the Board of Appeals agreed to those terms. Zahradnik later filed suit on her own behalf, with a member of her law firm acting as her attorney.

Both of these cases are expected to take several months or longer to resolve.

(See a link to a previous story about that lawsuit HERE)