Barbara Jefferson: Can I sue to stop the change?
Barbara Jefferson lives on Tuckahoe Road, about two miles from the proposed data center site. She has invested significantly in farm improvements since buying her property and worries the data center will reduce her property value to the point that she can never recoup that investment.
It is a real concern. Property values matter, but let’s follow the legal logic where it leads.
Ms. Jefferson claims that a lawful activity on someone else’s land — land her neighbors have every right to sell and develop — will reduce the value of her investment. She wants a court to block that activity to protect her property value.
By that reasoning, can a Mason County dairy farmer sue the milk companies that stopped buying local milk? Those farmers invested heavily in barns, equipment, and livestock. When the dairy industry consolidated and left Mason County, those investments lost value overnight. The farmers didn’t cause that. They couldn’t control it. But they had no legal right to stop it either.
Neither does Ms. Jefferson.
Property values in a free economy are shaped by forces no individual landowner can control. A neighbor selling land, a new business opening nearby, or an industry leaving town — none of these gives adjacent property owners the right to veto their neighbor’s choices. If they did, economic activity of any kind would grind to a halt.
On noise and light, Mason County’s ordinance addresses both with specific standards. If Ms. Jefferson believes those standards are insufficient, the proper forum is the planning process, not a lawsuit intended to void thirty purchase agreements.
The folks behind this lawsuit have deep pockets and can afford to base their future on yearning for a time before Mason County lost tobacco, dairy, and several major industries. This second lawsuit proves large legal bills don’t faze them as they yearn for an economic foundation that was — but is no more. Will you speak up and let them know not everyone in Mason County can afford to live in the past?
Lets review the relative size of the data center project to keep the size of the project in perspective
