The city of Arnold has settled a lawsuit with former Jefferson County Associate Circuit Judge Ray Dickhaner over a 1.6-acre property along Old Lemay Ferry Road northeast of Richardson Road he was trying to get rezoned.
By reaching the settlement, which calls for the city to pay Dickhaner $20,000 for the property, the city will avoid going to trial.
City Council members voted 8-0 during an Oct. 20 closed meeting to approve the settlement.
“We anticipated there might still be a significant amount of court proceedings ahead of us that would cost money, and the property has some value to us,” City Administrator Bryan Richison said. “If we ever widen Old Lemay Ferry, it will be a very helpful piece of property to have to accommodate that.
“The opportunity to avoid future legal expenses and get a piece of property that could help us in the future for $20,000 seems like a wise financial decision.”
Dickhaner, who lives in Arnold, said he was satisfied with the outcome.
“In every settlement each side needs to compromise,” he said. “I didn’t buy the property to keep it as a pet.”
Richison said the city paid attorney Sean Westhoff of Breeze Westhoff $9,319.25 to represent Arnold in the case.
He said Arnold used the Festus-based attorney because city attorney Bob Sweeney had been Dickhaner’s law partner.
Dickhaner sued the city after the Planning Commission and City Council unanimously rejected his request to rezone the property, which is referred to as Orchard Point Outlot, from residential to commercial.
Planning Commission members voted 8-0 on March 9, 2021, against the rezoning request after eight residents spoke at the meeting opposing the request. Following a public hearing, the city council voted 8-0 on March 18, 2021, to deny the request.
Dickhaner filed the lawsuit against the city on March 22, 2021, and Jefferson County Div. 6 Circuit Judge Troy Cardona issued a partial summary judgement on Oct. 13, 2021, ordering Arnold to rezone the property, court records show.
However, the city appealed that ruling, and on Aug. 22, the Missouri Court of Appeals ordered that the decision be reversed and a trial be scheduled to settle the disagreement, according to court documents.
“They (the city of Arnold) said I needed a professional opinion of what the property would be worth without the zone,” Dickhaner said. “Under the facts, it was worth nothing because I couldn’t do anything with it.”
Richison said city officials do not believe the property should be zoned commercial because it is surrounded by homes with no other commercial properties in that area.
Dickhaner said the property was nearly impossible to develop for residential purposes because of the terrain and because of a power line on the property.
“I would have to excavate a slope and put an expensive retaining wall there,” he said. “I would have to put a creek in a culvert that would have to be 6 feet tall. Then there is a high-power line that runs through the property that would cost me $100,000 to relocate. I would have made some money off it, but I wasn’t going to get rich and retire. It would be worth a few hundred thousand if it were zoned commercial.”
Richison said Arnold did not have the property appraised, and the city and Dickhaner came to the $20,000 price during negotiations.
He also said that while there are no immediate plans to widen Old Lemay Ferry Road, the agreement likely will make the project easier to complete if it’s approved in the future.
“On the opposite side of Old Lemay Ferry there are houses that are fairly close to the road,” Richison said. “If we widened the road, we would rather go east into this property. If we went to the west side, we would have to deal with several property owners and get close to their front doors.
“Just looking at the crystal ball, I feel pretty confident there will be a desire in the future to widen that road,” he said.