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The Indiana Department of Transportation filed a lawsuit this month against 121 property owners in Dubois County over issues surrounding the Mid-States Corridor Project.
INDOT claims the property owners are unlawfully preventing the project team from conducting environmental assessments and surveying for its Tier 2 study on the project, which aims to connect I-64 to I-69 through Spencer, Dubois and Martin counties.
The department gave approval last July for the first Tier 2 study on what’s known as Section of Independent Utility 2, or SIU 2, which extends from Interstate 64 near Huntingburg and Jasper to State Road 56 at Haysville in Dubois County.
The goal of the study—expected to take three years to complete—is to “evaluate more site-specific impacts to determine the specific preferred location and right-of-way needs” for the highway.
In the lawsuit filed March 3 in Dubois Circuit Court, INDOT claims the project team, along with INDOT, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and other agencies should be allowed to enter the defendants’ properties as allowed under state law.
INDOT said it mailed “Notice of Survey Letters” to the property owners beginning in July to give five days notice of the surveying efforts. The department also attempted to contact the owners by telephone and door-to-door visits from August to September.
“At this point, or thereafter, all of the Defendants expressed that INDOT would not be allowed onto their property, and that they would not permit INDOT to access their properties,” the lawsuit said.
The department said INDOT then visited the properties with law enforcement in tow in October but were again refused.
“Despite INDOT’s efforts, the project has stalled,” the lawsuit says. “INDOT needs to access the Properties in order to complete SIU Section 2, but Defendants have refused this access. INDOT has attempted peaceful resolution but, even when faced with law enforcement, Defendants have refused to comply with Indiana law.”
INDOT also noted that it received cease and desist letters from many of the defendants identifying Russell Sipes of Indianapolis-based Sipes Law Firm as their attorney.
The department alleges Sipes is attempting to “gum up the works” and cause further delays in the project.
“Mr. Sipes knows that these [cease and desist] Letters are legally ineffective, and he knows that Defendants do not have the legal right to refuse INDOT access: he has publicly acknowledged that INDOT will be able to “get a court order” to access Defendants’ properties,” INDOT said in the lawsuit.
A request for comment from Sipes was not immediately returned Tuesday.
INDOT is seeking a preliminary injunction to prohibit the property owners from interfering with the department’s “rights of access, surveying and assessment under Indiana law.”
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