BY SHERRY LYNN GROS for THE HIGHLAND PARK REVIEW December 31, 2024
Happening now at Highland Park Community Association in Mobile AL. HPca is being denied a permit to repair our pavilion roof by City Attorney Ricardo Woods and being stonewalled by Planning and Zoning. Also, the City Attorney sent an email directing Federal, State and Local agencies not to work with us regarding our business. Hpca, Inc. is an almost 100 yr old established civic space, owning an area of over 25 acres covering three separate properties plus easements with millions of dollars of environmental assets. HPca being active and servicing all of Mobile County for fishing and relaxation for a very long time in 2023 was annexed into the City of Mobile. Soon thereafter, The Mobile City Council flippantly zoned HPca lands R-1 without notice and disallowed HPca from doing the business that it was established to do since 1967. HPca protests the R-1 designation and recognizes it as null-and-void under established Alabama State law. We believe the Hpca newly annexed lands should be zoned as civic protected environmental space.
Incorporated in 1967 as a civic organization with ownership of a park, parking lot, lake, dam and spillway, HPca has been denied restoration, inspections, and permits and told we now must apply for a variance through City Council to do what we have been doing here for almost 100 years including community gardening. Watch the attached youtube video see if this isn’t what is happening to HPca. By denying HPca, Inc the right to earn a living, by forcing us to abandon maintenance of the land, not allowing our regular park activities without a variance, in essence, closes the business. According to the HPca’s land deed when HPca fails to serve the public for the purpose which it was intended the corporation may be dissolved and the easements cease to exist. Already, local businesses around the lake have made improvements upon the HPca easements land setting the stage to claim a taking and setting them up poised to take the land in court. If HPca cannot get the permits to maintain the land then HPca will be forced to dissolve the corporation, sell the land maybe for a $1.00 not unlike what happened at Shelton beach creek recently. The land can then be parsed off to their favorite developers and friends “for the greater good”. The City’s strategy is to break us financially through court costs and keep us jumping through hoops until physical, mental, financial exhaustion. No politician or environmental agency has lifted a finger to move in the usual ways to help with restoration efforts of a park containing protected wetlands under The Clean Water Act within a bird song sanctuary. Why not?
I find it interesting that City or County of Mobile never stopped an unauthorized consortium of lakeside owners, whose properties terminate at the high water mark of the banks of the creek, from blowing the dam that contained 116,000 cu acres of water releasing those waters into the Federally protected wetlands below but they DO stop the owner corporate (HPca) from repairing the area through the usual means i.e. grant applications, partnerships, donations, membership dues etc.
Yes HPca, Inc is very much grant competitors to the City of Mobile for park and watershed restoration grants. We have been asking for help for the past six years from City, County, and many others, i.e., Congressman Jerry Carl, Mayor Stimpson, many others, … so all were aware of this situation. Millions of Grant dollars were handed out to others in our area for water restoration and park and museum restorations while HPca went ignored and shunned and now even more so we are being blocked by the City powers from maintaining our lands. For what purpose?
HPca has raised almost 200 signatures in support of our park restoration.
In summary It is concerning to hear about the challenges faced by the Highland Park Community Association (HPca) in Mobile, AL. The denial of permits for essential repairs and the apparent obstruction from city officials threaten not only the longevity of this nearly century-old civic space but also the broader community that relies on its resources for recreation and relaxation. It is imperative for local authorities to engage constructively with established organizations like HPca that have long served public interests. Transparency and collaboration are essential to ensure that such vital community assets can continue functioning effectively, without undue bureaucratic hindrance. I hope this situation is resolved swiftly in favor of maintaining HPca’s important role in our community. But as you can see in this youtube video it appears to be a recipe for administrative land theft of sorts does it not?