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this story begins like many others. Someone does something that someone else doesn't like and they file a lawsuit. Then along comes an expert, in this case a planner.
In 2012, Dyers ville, Iowa, approved a rezoning of an area that included the location of the farmhouse and baseball field from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. The owners of the property planned to expand the site into a large sports complex and needed it rezoned from agricultural to commercial.
Neighboring property owners and community members filed a lawsuit challenging the city's action (Residential and Agricultural Advisory Committee, LLC v. Dyersvitle City Council 2016), The plaintiffs wanted a planner as an expert witness to help convince the court to overturn the rezoning. That planner was me.
1 will not go into the details of why I thought the aggrieved property owners were in the right, (That is a story unto itself). Most important to the story at hand is the fact that the courts ultimately found that the city had not acted improperly in the execution of its rezoning process.
What I will expound and reflect upon is the often unrewarding-though necessary-experience of serving as an expert witness and what it has taught me about the law and our role as planners in it.
The hard facts
In 2014, the plaintiffs' attorney contacted me to inquire if 1 would be...