Lawsuits Escalating Over Property Rights Issues

CHARLOTTE-Local officials will be embroiled shortly in a long-brewing lawsuit involving SouthPark mall. Residents have until Dec. 18 to file the suit which seeks to block the project’s recently approved 50% expansion. The number of court actions in other nearby markets is also rising.

For example, residents in Hickory, NC, 50 miles north of Downtown Charlotte, sued to prevent a Wal-Mart store from opening. East Charlotte residents have legally fought off a shopping center. And in Davidson, NC, a Charlotte suburb, developers are preparing to go to court over the town’s recent efforts to regulate the use of land.

Fanning the flames of battle even more is a shortage of open land as the Charlotte region continues to be the focus of ongoing development in all its sectors. In a published report, David Owens, a land-use law expert at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Government, says today’s big development companies have more money invested and are willing to fight harder.