“Dust, noise and disturbing the neighbors’ peace.” Those are the reasons cited by Ernie and Kim Irvan for suing Charleston, South Carolina’s beloved Ambrose Farm. The irony is, Ernie is a former Nascar driver.
In the biggest jerkass move we’ve heard of in quite some time, Irvan and his wife decided that their next-door neighbors, who have owned and operated their 130-acre community-supported farm for over 25 years, are simply too loud and obnoxious.
The lawsuit states that cars traveling to the farm “often travel at excessive speeds, greatly in excess of the community’s posted speed limit of 14 MPH, creating a dangerous condition and generating excessive dust and noise right next to the Irvan property.”
From The Post and Courier, via Treehugger:
Ernie Irvan is a former NASCAR driver with 15 career Winston Cup victories who may be best known for a terrible crash at Michigan Speedway. He suffered a serious head injury in the 1994 wreck but later recovered and returned to racing.
Kim Irvan said she and her husband don’t have any problem with Ambrose growing fruit and vegetables next door to their home and equestrian club. But they are tired of people of driving down the road to his farm that runs along the edge of their 49 acres to pick up their produce.
And they’ve had enough of his U-pick berry operation in April and May, which has brought in as many as 60 cars in an hour. The cars are noisy and stir up dust, and Ambrose’s customers have even wandered onto her land to pet her horses, Kim Irvan said.
Ambrose said he’s one of only about five fruit and vegetable farmers left in the area. If he can’t sell shares or run the U-pick business, his farm will go under. “We’d just have to give up,” he said. “I can’t see how we would make it.”
Maybe that head injury was more serious than anyone realized. Nobody said it better than Treehugger commenter Andy:
“Good call. Sue the farm so they go out of business so a new 1000 home development can move in. It will only require 5 years of construction vehicles making noise and tearing up your roads. Than you can fit right in with 2000 new SUVs racing down your roads every day.”
Link [Post and Courier] via [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Idiots on Sports
