The controversial No Hotel Group has lost the lawsuit it filed against Falls Church City to stop development of a hotel on Broad Street. The Arlington Circuit Court threw out the bulk of a meandering lawsuit the week of October 27th. Last Friday the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss with prejudice the remaining causes of action against the city.
The hotel was approved unanimously by the City Council in April 2008 after more than a year of vigorous public debate. Opponents, consisting mostly of property owners adjacent to the site and to parent groups at nearby St. James school, raised numerous objections to the project during the period of public comment. Most notably, opponents argued the hotel would be used as a base for child predators to harm area school kids.
The hotel was approved unanimously by the city council and the site plan was recently approved unanimously by the planning commission.
The Blueweeds blog supported the vigorous public debate, but was highly critical of the decision of a small group of disgruntled opponents to sue the city on the basis it had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in approving the initiative. It was hard to see how the tens of thousands of hours spent on consideration of the project, by city staff, elected officials, and hundreds of citizen volunteers, amounted to an arbitrary and capricious decision. The apparent conflict of interest in self-described "bull in a china shop" attorney Pier Coyne in bringing the lawsuit was also troubling to many.
In a moment of particular prescience, Blueweeds referred to the litigation as "... local self-interested, hooray for me screw my community, busybody, angry, NIMBY, pointless litigation at its very worst...."
The Arlington Circuit has fortunately dispensed with the matter. Excellent work by new City Attorney John Foster to stand up to local political bullies who have felt free to embroil the city in a tangle of allegations and manipulative investigations designed to serve their own narrow personal political agenda.
The litigants should now do right by city taxpayers and reimburse our community for the cost of their meritless litigation.
