Photo courtesy of City of Vestavia Hills.
A group of nine Vestavia Hills residents has filed a joint lawsuit against the City of Vestavia Hills, Daniel Corporation and NHS Corp. for damages they claim are the result of the Patchwork Farms development.
The complaint, which — according to representatives of the residents — was filed on Friday, March 24 in the Jefferson County Circuit Court, alleges that the development at Patchwork Farms, specifically the Vestavia Reserve apartment complex, violated the original development agreements and has caused significant harm to property values and quality of life for residents on Old Looney Mill Road. Representatives provided a copy of the complaint to Vestavia Voice by email.
City Manager Jeff Downes said that as of Tuesday afternoon the city had not been served with the complaint and that without further information he could not respond to any allegations. He also said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Attorney for the plaintiffs Jay Smith said that owners of the five lots directly adjacent to lot “3B” of Patchwork Farms said they were promised one type of development behind their homes, and received another.
The details of the original agreement between homeowners and then property owner NHS Corp. is still in discovery, Smith said, but the claim states that at least one couple, Christi and Jeff Maze, were told in December 2013 when they first contracted with NHS that the development behind the property was slated for “small retail with lofts on top.”
Smith said the idea, homeowners were told, was to have a development similar to that of Cahaba Village in Mountain Brook, with retail shops on the first floor and one to two floors of residential units above.
Instead, the case says, the development turned into a 270-unit apartment complex.
On Aug. 25, 2014, the Vestavia Hills City Council voted to approve a sale agreement that indicated lot “3B” would be used for the 270 multifamily units.
Smith said that the Mazes and other owners of the five lots on Old Looney Mill were not notified of the changes to the intended development before closing on their properties in late summer 2014.
“If they had known that the changes to the development behind their house would have been as significant as they were, and that those changes would have been other than what they had promised, they would not have bought the property,” Smith said.
Vestavia Reserve, the luxury apartment complex that was eventually built, is four stories high, with units ranging from one to three bedrooms.
“Everything about the development was different than what was described to them prior to the purchase of the home,” Smith said.
In addition to the changes in the size, scope and style of the development, Smith said the residents are also suing because of the loss of the landscaping buffer between the development and the homes.
The agreement, Smith said, was for the development to include a buffer pursuant to the Patchwork Farms Master Plan, which was based on a community charrette done in 2013.
The original buffer was supposed to be 35 feet, though that was amended to be a 20-foot sewer buffer with a “berm” on top, as well as a 17.5-foot landscape buffer.
According to the master plan, landscape buffers in Patchwork Farms should “preserve existing trees as a general rule” and that “landscape design should enhance the overall project, buffer negative views, screen and/or provide a transition to adjacent properties.”
Smith said that not only were the requirements for the buffer not met, but the buffer that was there naturally — which he said included trees and shrubs — was removed during the development.
According to the complaint, the property owners have endured “an ongoing nuisance in their backyards,” and a loss in property value due to the development.
“As you can imagine, somebody who looks at a house with a huge apartment complex in its backyard with no significant buffer or separation from that apartment complex, may not be nearly as likely to buy that property as they otherwise would, maybe not at all,” Smith said.
Smith said the property owners have basically asked the court to either require direct financial compensation for lost property values or require the defendants to buy-out the owners of the properties.
Once the the city, Daniel Corporation — which is now DC Legacy Corporation — and NSH Corporation respond to the complaint, the courts will move forward with scheduling any additional discovery, depositions and trial. The plaintiffs have requested a jury trial for the case.
We will update this story as more information becomes available.
