Judge: Five Points book kiosk property belongs to library

The Lewes Public Library has won its 10-year battle for a parcel of land in Five Points after a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the library over an area church that had contested ownership.

In a decision filed March 23, Sussex County Superior Court Judge Mark H. Connor ruled that the 2.5-acre parcel near the Savannah Road entrance to the Villages of Five Points development belongs to the library, and the library’s interest in the property has vested.

“The library accepted the property and used it for a library facility within the requisite 10-year period. To take the property away now would be inconsistent with the grantor’s intentions,” Connor wrote in his decision.

In September, Connor heard testimony from the library and the New Covenant Church as part of a lawsuit filed by the library asking the court to decide who owns the property.

Questions about property ownership boiled over in 2019 when the library placed a book kiosk at the corner of the Five Points site. The Villages of Five Points Property Owners Association first challenged the library’s ownership, claiming a kiosk is not the same as a library building. However, after a few months of fighting for the property, the POA backed out of the fight, leaving only the church.

A 2012 conditional use attached to the property deed has been at the center of the dispute over who owns the parcel, with different parties contending it belongs to them.

The final decision on ownership came down to Connor’s interpretation of what developer Christian Hudson intended when he gifted the 2.5-acre parcel to the library with the conditional use that it build a “library facility.”

Hudson did not testify for either the church or the library during the September trial, leaving Connor to make his decision based on testimony from church and library associates and interpretation of the original deed.

Lewes library officials did not respond to a request for comment on what they intend to do with the parcel and whether there is any plan to sell it now that the court has established library ownership.