The Weilenmann School of Discovery last week filed a lawsuit in Third District Court against Summit County over the Summit County Council’s approval of the Discovery Core development.
According to the school’s lawyer and chair of the Board of Directors, Dallis Nordstrom, the non-profit charter school’s lawsuit has nothing to do with a previous action filed by the community group CAGE. CAGE’s lawsuit against the development centers on the alleged inappropriate location and unclear CORE approval process.
“Weilenmann’s complaint against the county and the development is over the access point of the development. That is our only issue here,” Nordstrom said. “The development’s secondary access point utilizes the school’s driveway, and anyone who has been near the school during drop-off or pick-up knows that the driveway is already packed.”
The development is expected to contain 105-units on 70 acres and be located directly behind the school, south of Kilby Road.
Discovery developers said the school’s driveway would only be used as emergency access to the development, but Nordstrom said the development is required to have two entryways and nothing would stop residents from using the school’s driveway.
“We have nothing against the development being built behind our school. We are a school and not in the business of deciding who puts what where,” she said. “We just think the county needs to do some more work on the specifics of this development.”
In a letter sent out on Tuesday to parents, the school’s Board of Directors said that based on input from the administration and parents, the board had safety concerns about the development.
“The board authorized filing suit against Summit County to contest the zoning change. In filing this lawsuit, we are not taking a position on the development that would be permitted under the new zoning, per se. contesting the zoning, we expect that any zoning that ultimately may occur will better address our safety concern.”
Nordstrom said the board has not served the county courthouse with the lawsuit yet because they heard the land surrounding the development may be sold to the Basin Open Space Advisory Committee and want to wait and see how everything turns out.
The school’s lawsuit claims the county council’s approval of Discovery CORE was arbitrary, illegal or debatable, the approval violated due process, and that the council’s decision directly affects Weilenmann property without the consent of the property owner.
-Clarification
In an article from Nov. 8 about the Discovery Core development, David Thomas was referred to as the Summit County Attorney; he is the Summit County Chief Civil Deputy in the Attorney’s department.