Solar array owner sues neighbors – Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
A Palisade landowner who received a permit last fall to build a controversial solar array that was highly opposed by neighbors because it’s in a scenic area has filed a civil lawsuit against his neighbors, some of whom were highly vocal against the project.
Ronald and Lynnette Summy, who live at 566 38 Road where the solar array is to be built, alleges that his neighbors are allowing James J. Fletcher and his Hope ‘N Horses nonprofit that provides equine therapy for troubled veterans and first responders to trespass on a shared easement that they partly own with those neighbors.
In their civil suit, which names Fletcher and several area landowners who were highly vocal late last year in speaking out against his solar project, the Summys say that a 1985 easement agreement between the landowners only allows its joint owners to use it as an access road for ingress and egress to their properties.
Fletcher, however, has a lease agreement with one of those landowners to take his horses and the veterans riding them that gives him permission to use the private road.
That permission came from Dmitry and Katharine Smushkov, who are neighbors with Jason and Rhiannon Larson. The Larsons led a vocal effort against the solar project and the county’s recent moratorium on new ones until its land-use code could be updated to accommodate for such small energy developments.
The Summys’ property lies directly between the land owned by the Smushkovs and the Larsons and Fletcher’s home off Aldrea Vista Court, where he also operates Hope ‘N Horses. They go through that area to reach Bureau of Land Management land on the Horse Mountain area of Palisade.
“One or more of the easement holders, and specifically, Mr. Larson, have or has impermissibly granted permission or authorization to Mr. Fletcher and or (Hope ‘N Horses) to use the easement and in the process unlawfully enter the Summy property in contravention of the easement agreement and Colorado law,” the suit reads.
Fletcher recently defeated Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland in the GOP primary last month, and goes on to be an uncontested candidate for that seat in November. Part of his campaign was an objection to the commissioners approving Summy’s modified conditional use permit, originally approved in 2018, to double the size of the 4 megawatt solar array.
ROAD CONFLICT
Ten days before the Summys filed their lawsuit, Ronald Summy was issued two summons for reckless endangerment by a Mesa County Sheriff’s deputy.
During that incident, Fletcher and three others said that Summy nearly ran into them while on horseback on Sobre El Rio Drive near Fletcher’s ranch.
As a result, Fletcher filed for a civil protection order against Summy. During a hearing on that order before Mesa County Magistrate Matthew Hardin last week, Summy claimed the riders were on the wrong side of the road and he moved over until they went to the proper side.
But two of those riders, Hope ‘N Horses volunteer Mark Gomez and Iraq war veteran Bridget Austin, said they were on the proper side of the road, and that Summy had intentionally swerved toward them, nearly hitting them and their horses.
Austin testified that she used a hand motion asking Summy to slow down, and then yelled at him to do so.
“I used choice words,” testified Austin, who suffers from PTSD after being injury by a roadside explosive device during the war. “I though it was malicious. (The horses) are hard to miss, especially against a green background.”
Summy said he was going 15 to 20 mph, but the riders said he was more like 35 mph, 10 miles over the speed limit.
Hardin hasn’t yet ruled on the protection order because testimony isn’t yet complete. The parties are scheduled to reappear in his courtroom on July 24.
That incident prompted the four, including Fletcher, to file a complaint with the sheriff’s office, which issued two citations to Summy for reckless endangerment. He is to be arraigned on those misdemeanor charges later this month. If convicted, he could face up to two years in jail.
At last week’s hearing, Fletcher’s attorney, former Mesa County prosecutor Rich Tuttle, asked Summy if he filed the lawsuit in retaliation for his neighbors objections to the solar array, something Ronald Summy denied.
Tuttle then asked Summy why he and his wife are only now complaining about Fletcher and his horses going through the area, something he’s been doing for at least the past five years. The Summys, who also live in the Sobre neighborhood, purchased a 40-acre lot south of there 11 years ago.
Summy did not respond to that question directly, saying only that it was now a legal matter yet to be resolved.
Tuttle and Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Worley, who issued the summons to Summy, said the Summys had made at least three 911 complaints about Fletcher’s horses earlier this year, after his neighbors tried to block his solar project.
Ironically, the Summy’s original site plan to build the solar array that is on file with the county calls for work crews to use that same easement road to access the property.
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