Destroyer of Trees and Nature — the man from Alexandria
Harrison Sherwood wrote the following about the man from Alexandria -
“We have lived on the back stretch of Stevens Road since 2004. Our house has stood here, in one form or another, since 1775, as near as my research can tell. Behind us on Short Hill, there is, well, nothing. Nothing except beautiful, wild Short Hill, with its plentiful deer, its foxes and coyotes and possums. Oh, and that pesky trash-raiding bear.
“The lots up the hill from us are landlocked — that is, inaccessible by public road. In previous centuries, they served as wood-lots for the area’s farmers. A public road did once go from here to the other side of the mountain, but it’s long gone.
“A threat to that peaceful land has existed for a few years, unbeknownst to many of us. In the 2010s, a gentleman from Alexandria bought a large number of those former wood-lots, and started to make a pest of himself trying to access them. He claims he wants to use the land for hunting, but recent actions on his part put the lie to this claim. The truth is, he intends to subdivide and develop those lots, and he is using extremely dubious legal claims to make this happen.
“In the last year, he sold a lot contiguous to ours to (we believe) an employee of his. This second party has served us with a lawsuit (represented by the gentleman from Alexandria, hmm…) claiming that an easement exists between that lot and our driveway. This second person, clearly a surrogate, says he intends to build a house on that lot. He was out here yesterday with a well-digging contractor, so we believe him.
“An easement does in fact exist, but it is to allow our immediate uphill neighbors, who share our driveway, access to Stevens Road. It makes no mention whatever of any contiguous lots.
“But here’s where things get scary for all of us. If that easement is interpreted by the court as granting access from that uphill property to Stevens Road, as this lawsuit asserts, there is little preventing this person from razing huge swaths of our beloved forest and putting houses up there. Those old wood-lots he bought stretch all the way back to Buzzard Rock.
“We have entered a demurrer to this lawsuit, and hope and pray (and confidently expect) that a judge will dismiss it outright, so we can continue with our peaceful, quiet lives. The courts are now closed for the duration, so the matter stands in limbo for the moment, but when they reopen, the suit will either be dismissed or it will continue.”
O Help them if you can — Harrison Sherwood and Kathryn Porter, of 38164 Stevens Road, Lovettsville, VA 20180
