HOT SPRINGS -- Petitioners for the incorporation of Diamondhead called the request to enjoin the gated community from becoming a city a "delaying tactic," one that's costing it $30,000 a month.
The pleading filed Wednesday in Garland County Circuit Court argued the committee for incorporation satisfied all of the statutory requirements. County Judge Darryl Mahoney granted the incorporation last month, noting in his March 1 order that the committee met the statutory burden.
Developer Mark Lane filed for the injunction last month. The principal of Omni Home Builders, his Colorado-based company's 2018 acquisition of 1,600 lots spanning Garland and Hot Spring counties made it Diamondhead's largest landowner.
A settlement Omni reached with the property owners association in 2022 allowed Lane to appoint four of the nine members of the association's new board of directors elected later that year.
Lane, who's not a licensed attorney, is representing himself. The complaint he filed March 25 referenced some of the reservations Mahoney expressed about the new city's ability to provide basic services such as police protection and road maintenance during the Feb. 12 hearing in county court.
Mahoney informed the litigants in a March 26 letter that he's the brother-in-law of Division 1 Circuit Judge Ralph Ohm, who was assigned to hear Lane's challenge.
The response and motion to dismiss petitioners filed Wednesday said the concerns Lane raised are irrelevant. Attorney Chris Walthall is representing the petitioners. He presented the petition for incorporation in county court earlier this year.
The petition for injunctive relief "delays the city of Diamondhead from pursuing all of their obligations to become a functioning city and by such, based upon estimates of sister cities who have done effectively the same thing, the city of Diamondhead is losing approximately $30,000.00 per month."