Church makes play for library's Five Points parcel

A Lewes church is the third and latest entity to enter a legal battle over a parcel of land in the Villages of Five Points. In a counterclaim filed Oct. 1 in Sussex County Superior Court, court records state, the New Covenant Presbyterian Church is asking a judge to declare the 2.5 acre parcel off Savannah Road theirs because the developer deeded the property to the Lewes Public Library only if a new library would be built at the location.

“The property is given to the library if, and only if, the library chooses the property for its new location,” the counterclaim quotes the 2012 property deed, giving the parcel to the library as long as it uses the property for a library facility within 10 years.

In the original deed, if the library did not build a facility within 10 years, it would go to another nonprofit. The Villages of Five Points Property Association was not setup as a nonprofit at the time, and the deed states that if the association does not accept the land donation, the title would be transferred to New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lewes - now the third claimant of the $3.8 million parcel. The deed was approved by Sussex County officials as a condition of its 2011 county approval.

In March, the library built a book kiosk on the property, angering the association which levied $6,000 in fines against the library for building an unapproved structure on the site. The association also fined the library $50 a day for each day the kiosk remains. Association officials say that the parcel belongs to them because the library did not use the property for its new facility, which was built in Lewes.

In a previous interview, John Eikrem, president of the property owners board, said the association wants the parcel in order to beautify the development. He has since declined to comment because of the lawsuit.

“Instead of grassy open space, we could see an unsightly commercial building that would spoil the view of our pond and add to traffic congestion,” he said.

In correspondence between the library and the association obtained by the Cape Gazette, Eikrem said the association would not sell the property. “Our only interest is maintaining the beauty of our community,” he wrote.

Eikrem also said the association was in the process of creating a 501(c)(3) entity to accept the parcel – a nonprofit tax designation required by the deed.

The association has since filed its own court action with an Oct. 18 motion to dismiss the library's lawsuit. In it, the association states on May 13 it created a nonprofit corporation with the Delaware Department of State known as the Villages of Five Points Community Enhancement Foundation Inc. At the time, court records state, the foundation had applied for 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service.

The association asks the judge to dismiss the case because the lawsuit filed by the library a month later, in August, does not refer to the new foundation – the entity that should be listed as the defendant in the lawsuit, not the village association, records state. For the same reason, the association asks the judge to dismiss the church's counterclaim.

“Defendant was sued as the wrong party and must be afforded the relief prayed for by dismissing the complaint and crossclaim as against the defendant,” the association's motion to dismiss reads.

Library officials are not commenting on the lawsuit, and they have not yet responded to the association's request to dismiss.

In response to the church's claim on the property, the library said in court records that the developer knew months before deeding the property to the library that the library was planning to build its new facility in Lewes. “The library's selection of the Thompson Property [in Lewes] was a matter of public record,” the library states in court records.

A Cape Gazette article in 2013 quoted developer Christian Hudson as saying, “It was always the intent to donate the parcel – valued at $3.8 million – to the library, which meets the definition of a charity.”

The article went on to state, “Even though the library chose another construction site for its new facility, the library still accepted the land donation.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated with background information on the deed.