SALEM, VA – The plan to redevelop Salem’s HopeTree campus may have cleared the city council — but it’s still facing pushback in court.
“If you have a developer with a hammer and all kinds of other tools, everything to them looks like a nail,” Dr. Samuel Williams said.
Williams has lived across from HopeTree for over 40 years.
He says it’s not about opposing development, but about doing it the right way.
“We’re not really wanting development to be halted necessarily; we want it to be done wisely and responsibly,” Williams said.
Williams isn’t alone. Over the past year, five lawsuits have been filed against HopeTree. While four were withdrawn, one remains.
That lawsuit was filed in January by Carlos Hart Jr.
It names HopeTree Family Services, the Virginia Baptist Children’s Home (another HopeTree entity), and Salem City Council as defendants.
While he couldn’t speak to specifics, HopeTree spokesperson Chris Dodd says the lawsuit claims the city’s zoning proceedings were incorrect — similar to the four earlier cases that were dismissed.
“Clerical errors, which those were corrected but nothing major. We resubmitted, fixing some of those errors, and once again, those were approved. With this one I think there may still be some of that,” Dodd said.
Hart’s attorney, as well as the City of Salem, declined to comment.
Dodd says they’re focusing on the future.
“We’ve worked with a lot of neighbors and we’ve done a lot of studies to make sure that the impact on traffic, water runoff is minimal, and that is ultimately at the end of the day something folks can look back on and say ‘this was a very positive mark on the community,” Dodd said.
But Williams still worries.
“Sometimes developers want to say ‘we’ll just build densely,’ and I’d just like to say that density should not be our destiny,” Wiliams said.
The hearing is Friday at 9:00a.m.