Court documents show a magistrate earlier this month approved a two-week restraining order against the city, effective July 25, preventing Huber Heights from redirecting all sanitary sewer flow from the CenterPoint 70 area to the pump station recently installed in front of the planned Buc-ee’s store to then begin pumping to the city of Fairborn wastewater treatment plant.
This redirection of services would leave the city of Huber Heights’ water and sanitary systems independent of the county, which Clark County commissioners argue would breach a longstanding agreement, causing “immediate and irreparable injury, loss or damage.”
The Clark County commissioners first filed a court complaint against the city last summer, claiming Huber Heights’ 20-year wastewater treatment services contract with the city of Fairborn, which the city entered into in 2022 as part of its east sewer main extension project, may violate a similar set of contracts between Clark County and Huber Heights.
The county’s complaint claims it has sole right and authority to operate water and sewer in the service areas outlined in the agreement, which includes the Buc-ee’s project site near the I-70/Ohio 235 interchange, in the area of CenterPoint 70 Boulevard.
The city has asserted it is not contractually obligated to connect to Clark County services.
The city has maintained the litigation will not affect the Buc-ee’s project, which was officially kicked off during a groundbreaking event last week.
Mayor Jeff Gore has said, however, that he believes the Buc-ee’s project is ultimately what prompted Clark County commissioners to sue the city.
“The lawsuit wasn’t filed until (Clark County commissioners) knew that Buc-ee’s was coming,” Gore said to Dayton Daily News recently. “... The only reason we started to expand our own sewer is because Clark County refused to provide sewer services to Old Dominion.”
Old Dominion was built in 2021. The company is located at 2005 Old Dominion Way, just north of the Buc-ee’s site. Huber Heights contends the business falls immediately adjacent to the contract’s outlined easement and is therefore included in the coverage area. Clark County denies this claim.
According to Gore, the rift concerning Old Dominion stems from a joint economic development district agreement (JEDD) between the city and Clark County, which Gore said is separate from the water/sewer service agreements at the heart of the lawsuit.
The JEDD agreement allows both municipalities to benefit economically from any businesses located within the JEDD perimeter via tax revenue.
In the initial plans, Old Dominion was set to develop its facility within the JEDD, however, soil and ground issues caused the company to resituate the building to an area that instead fell outside of the district perimeter.
This change meant Old Dominion would fall within the city limits, squashing the opportunity for Clark County to benefit from JEDD revenue. The county subsequently declined to extend service to the business, Gore explained.
“So, we spent the money to invest and extend our water and sewer (infrastructure) and tie into Fairborn’s,” he said of the water/sewer infrastructure overhaul. “Then, the Buc-ee’s project was announced, and Clark County wants to service that, so now they’re mad that we’re working with Fairborn.”
Clark County Commissioner Melanie Flax Wilt declined to comment this week, citing the pending litigation.
Whether the longstanding water/sewer agreements between the city and county, which are in effect until 2035, give Clark County exclusive rights to service the contract areas is yet to be determined by the court, documents reiterate.
The city posits within court documents that if the contracts are interpreted to grant the county exclusive rights, the county itself breached the requirements by failing to expand services to Old Dominion in 2021.
A jury trial is currently scheduled for Oct. 21.
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