MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Monday, July 28, 2008 3:46 pm

Rutherford County filed a motion Friday asking the Chancery Court to take a different look at the Bible Park zoning case.

Attorneys for the county want the case reviewed as a declaratory judgment, not as a petition of certiorari, as the Sheltons’ filed it.

C. Dewees Berry, an attorney with Nashville-based Bass, Berry and Sims, which represents Rutherford County, in this case, explained the difference is a declaratory judgment allows the use of witnesses, where a petition of certiorari only uses the paper trail made by the government.

“It would give the court a better idea of what happened,” Berry said.

The Shelton family, which owns the 240 acres optioned by SafeHarbor, LLC for the development of Bible Park USA, filed suit against Rutherford County last month challenging the county’s denial of the park’s rezoning request.

The lawsuit requests the landowner petition be corrected, the zoning application approved and attorney’s fees be paid by the county. No specific damages were requested.

The family is concerned with a “lack of transparency in the County’s handling of the petition against the proposed development” and the impact on citizen’s property rights, family spokesman Steve Shelton said in a prepared statement.

The Sheltons said in a prepared statement they are not suing to get the park approved, but instead protect the rights of property owners in the future by voiding section 4.05 of Rutherford County’s Zoning Resolution.

Section 4.05 of the resolution allows 20 percent of surrounding landowners to submit a notarized petition opposing development. If the petition is deemed valid, then proposed develops require a two-thirds majority vote for approval.

According to the lawsuit, the commission “rejected the motion’s assertion that the Application failed to meet applicable zoning standards” and should have been approved by a simple majority vote.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.