Well it seems that judges must not read my posts. It also seems that when I talked about Common Sense Laws that common sense was again too far to grasp.
Basically the judge has now defined a parking lot as any commercial property that a car comes to rest on. So if you're in unincorporated Scott County and expect to be able to use gravel instead of paving you're wrong.
The Reel to Reel Drive-In project has been trying for a few years now to build this drive-in so if the Lakeside trailer park thinks that another set back is going to stop us they are sorely wrong.
If you want to help us please do one of the following:
- Tell your friends about what is going on.
- Write a letter to the Quad City Times by clicking this link http://www.qctimes.com/app/pages/contact/new/?contact=letters
- Contact the Scott County Board of Supervisors and ask what they can do to help Reel to Reel
Here is the judges ruling:
Common sense law enforcement should go hand-in-hand with common sense laws. A number of years ago Scott County adopted rules and regulations that would bring zoning laws in line with the rest of the country. One of those many zoning laws directly relates to a paving requirement that was meant to keep gravel/etc off of county roads. Could you imagine Brady Street if all of the side roads were Gravel?
On that other hand if you've ever driven through rural Scott County you'll notice hundreds of occurrences where county gravel roads meet county paved roads. You'll also find hundreds of occasions where commercial properties have gravel/non-paving that lead directly onto a county road way. We ARE NOT asking to do this.
We have met the pavement requirement by purchasing nearly a 3/4 mile stretch of land to pave as an entry road. We have had two Scott County boards vote unanimously to allow for us to build under the current plan.
Kyle Turnbull on behalf of ARC & ARC06 LLC have filed suit to stop us from building. They simply do not like the idea of us building near them. So they have begun the process of abusing the legal system, and wasting Scott County, Iowa tax dollars defending this.
But Scott County is not just defending our right to construct a commercial business onto commercial property that we own. Scott County is defending the right of ALL Scott County residents to build on their own property.
On Monday, February 8th at 2PM the pre-trial conference will take place. We are here publicly encouraging the Iowa court system to make common sense decisions regarding tax payer dollars.
On Monday, March 5th at 9AM the trial between ARM06 LLC v Scott County will take place. Again we are encouraging the Iowa court system to make common sense decisions regarding the law, and tax payer dollars.
Well we're trying. We're trying to build the Reel to Reel Drive-In the best that we can. It all started with a dream and an idea. Build the best, and largest drive-in movie theater in Iowa. We finally saw the finish line in sight before having it snatched away from us.
On Tuesday, April 7th Reel to Reel Drive-In got approval from the Scott County Planning & Zoning Commission to build the drive-in and on Wednesday, April 15th we closed on the property to build it. So now we own the property to build it on, we have agreements in place for a special access road off of county road Y-48 (away from the trailer park), our building plan was approved, and then American Residential Communities the nearby trailer park appealed the boards decision.
On May 26th 2009 ARC appealed the Planing and Zoning Commission's decision to the Scott County Zoning Board of Adjustment. During the meeting the expertise of the Scott County Planing and Zoning Administrator, the Scott County Engineer, and the Assistant Scott County Attorney was called upon in the decision to move forward. Again the Board of Adjustment voted unanimously to allow for the construction of the Reel to Reel Drive-In.
On June 16th Richard A. Davidson of Lane & Waterman LLP, and Kyle Turnbull of ARC both representing American Residential Communities filed a lawsuit in the Iowa District Court for Scott County against the Scott County Board of Adjustments, the Scott County Planning and Zoning Commission, and the Scott County Planning and Zoning Administrator to try and stop the drive-in from being built.
The above mentioned are trying to force Scott County to have the entirety of the drive-in's viewing area paved. With two screens the Reel to Reel Drive-In's viewing area constitutes nearly six acres of land. If the lawsuit continues Scott County, and the Scott County Attorney's Office will need to spend time and money defending the Planing and Zoning Commissions lawful right to interpret building code, and rule accordingly.
Could you imagine going to a drive-in movie theater just to sit on hot paving, looking out across a sea of pavement, watching rain water run off flow down the six acres of viewing area. If ARC has it's way that will be the movie experience. No longer coming to rest on grass or gravel just pavement.
ARC's interpretation of the law is that all parking areas need to be paved. It is Reel to Reel Drive-In's position that we are building a Drive-In Movie Theater not a parking lot, and that Reel to Reel's concession stand does not constitute a restaurant (because it has no seating) and this does not require any sort of paved parking for customers.
Please drop this frivolous lawsuit and allow the Reel to Reel Drive-In Movie Theater to finish construction. We will not be able to move forward, we will have no Drive-In until this lawsuit is finished, and ARC stops trying to interrupt the construction. Please help us out by signing the petition.
Sign the Petition Here:
Sign Our Petition
Grand Opening Ticket Giveaway / Newsletter Sign Up
Don't forget we are still going to be giving away a four (4) pack of tickets to our grand opening sometime. You will automatically be entered to win by signing up for our Newsletter here.
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Below is a panoramic picture of the drive-in property. Please click here, or the link below to see the full sized large image.
Full Sized Image (5.8mb): http://www.davenportdrivein.com/pano/GALLERY/reel-pano.jpg
Small Image (60kb): http://www.davenportdrivein.com/pano/GALLERY/reel-pano-small.jpg
This movie is going to look great on the big screen!
