The lawsuit surrounding land east of the Parkman Township gazebo park recently became more complicated.
The lawsuit surrounding land east of the Parkman Township gazebo park recently became more complicated.
Parkman Township Trustee Joyce Peters announced at the trustees’ meeting June 18 the township has been named again in the lawsuit involving property next to the township park on U.S. Route 422.
“This week, we received a third action from BTE (Properties LLC, of Middlefield), who is taking an action against (ALL Inc.) to stop their attempt to redirect the property restrictions,” she said.“It literally makes me kinda mad.”
Originally, BTE filed a complaint to quiet title for the 2.64 acres at the intersection of Route 422 and McCall Road, but had mistakenly called it Nelson Road in an advertisement of the lawsuit, causing significant confusion.
A quarter acre of the 2.64-acre parcel had a deed restriction placed on it by the Perkins family in the 1800s, when the parcel was donated to the township for public use — a restriction prohibiting building there. Perkins family heirs are also named in the complaint.
BTE’s lawsuit is asking for a judgment to “declare invalid and unenforceable” the deed restrictions on the parcel at Main Market (Route 422) and Nelson Road, which comes from the south and ends at the southwest corner of the township park. McCall Road runs a few hundred feet from the end of Nelson Road to Route 422, according to the Geauga County Auditor’s Office map.
Ken Ashba, a.k.a. ALL Inc., owner of the Gulf station across the street on the north side of Route 422, filed a motion to intervene against BTE and named the township trustees in it. The motion was granted.
In the filing, he claims BTE and ABC Development LLC of Cleveland intend to build a Sheetz station and convenience store on the parcel.
BTE then filed a complaint against ALL and named the township in it. BTE claims the restrictions serve no purpose, said township attorney Todd Petersen in a recent phone interview.
Although the quarter acre is the only section of the parcel on which the restrictions remain, Petersen said those restrictions “cloud the title of the entire parcel.”
During the meeting June 18, Ashba, citing the erroneous advertisement, questioned whether BTE and ABC are seeking to gain title to the township park on which the township gazebo sits.
The deed restriction, dating back to 1843, states: “… trustees and their successors in office shall hold said land for the inhabitants of said township to use as a public square or commons unencumbered by any building or structure whatever except railing of a public walk,” according to a letter trustees received from BTE’s lawyers.
Peters said in a text, “To my knowledge, there are only restrictions on the quarter acre and that’s all (a previous board of trustees) sold to them,” adding the fact that the suit lists the parcel identifying number limits the suit to the 2.63 acres.
Petersen said June 24 the quiet title documents specify the parcel 24-F000268, not the township park parcel.
During the meeting, Ashba questioned how the parcel was sold in 2018 by trustees who are no longer in office.
Peters said at the June 18 meeting she spent 20 hours unsuccessfully searching through computerized minutes for that information.
Trustees are entitled to enforce the restrictions and Ashba, through his intervention, is trying to force the trustees to do so, Petersen said.
Ashba said in the June 18 meeting he is concerned for the future of the small park on the corner.
“These folks now have twice the land needed to build a nice-sized station. They don’t need the park. My motivation is not to keep Sheetz out. I like the park. There is something going on we just don’t know about,” Ashba said.
As the legal actions proceed, a discovery hearing may reveal what the company plans for the 2.63 acres, he said.
“The judge has accepted my suit. The attorneys will make sure the park’s not in play,” Ashba said.
Petersen said July 1 he is hoping to meet with the BTE attorneys and find a way to resolve the problem.
During a phone conversation last week, Ashba said he made an offer to buy the 2.64 acres and, if he acquires it he would develop it as more of a tourism center where local business people could have shops and restaurants.
“We want a community, not a gas station,” he said.
