FAIRHOPE – Baldwin County Circuit Judge James H. Reid will decide if Twin Bridge Estates, a subdivision off County Road 20, has the right to stop the activities of two commercial buildings due to a violation of the residential community’s restrictive covenants. 

The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunctive relief against the defendants – M.A. Kittrell and Treasure Coast Contracting – for constructing two 7,500 square foot commercial buildings next to their residential neighborhood, and at the intersection of the only entrance to that portion of the subdivision - Willis Road.  

John Machen, a plaintiff, built his retirement home in the community.  The commercial buildings abut his property and are approximately twenty feet from his house. 

At the trial, Machen said that the buildings are “directly next door” to the commercial property.

The subdivision’s restrictive covenants were recorded in Baldwin County Probate Records on Sept. 23, 1976. 

One article stated that “no noxious or offensive trade or activity shall be carried…upon any lot, nor shall anything be done thereon which may become any annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood.”

The injunctive relief, filed by the plaintiff’s attorney Lloyd E. Taylor of Taylor & Taylor in Robertsdale, stated that “any activity of construction that is inconsistent with use as a residential subdivision which may become an annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood, (including)…the construction of commercial buildings” violates the community’s restrictive covenants. 

Taylor, at the trial, mentioned that the two commercial buildings contain 7 electrical meters, questioning the number of businesses that will occupy the complex. 

Georgia Bankston, a resident of Twin Bridge Estates, said in an interview that “the permit application for this commercial building stated it was for a storage building.”  

M.A. Kittrell, who owns the commercial buildings, testified that he is currently parking his motor home in one of the buildings and that he has “ideas” but not a “definite plan” regarding the business direction of the facility. 

He said, however, that he intends to use the buildings for commercial purposes. 

William Jewett of Treasure Coast Contracting testified that he will soon own one of the commercial buildings. 

He said that he will lease the location to “things that are not offensive,” noting examples such as a realtor or a computer store. 

In July, Reid ruled against a restrictive covenants case involving a two-tower condominium development and nine-lots of land, along the coast in Orange Beach, that were limited by the covenants to single-family homes, according to reports. 

Reid ruled in favor of developer Larry Wireman’s condominiums.

“The enforcement of the covenants would work a hardship on the property owners because it would require them to maintain single-family residences in an area that is no longer suitable for that purpose due to extensive development in the area, zoning changes, and changes in the building codes,” he wrote in the court’s opinion.