Property owner gets legal win in parking dispute

A judge has sided with Five Points property owner Barry Stiles in his legal dispute with the Athens-Clarke government over 22 parking spaces on South Lumpkin Street.

Stiles' company, Stiles Apartments Inc., sued the local government in December, saying that the parking spaces are on land Stiles owns and ought to control.

Lawyers for the local government said the parking spaces should be open to the public under a 1954 agreement between Stiles Apartments and the City of Athens.

Stiles said businesses in his building at 1690 S. Lumpkin St. lost trade and ultimately had to shut down because they couldn't offer exclusive parking, as other Five Points businesses do.

The agreement allowed the city to pave and stripe Stiles-owned land for parking next to Lumpkin Street, but spelled out that the property would still be owned by Stiles.

Now, Senior Superior Court Judge Penn McWhorter has issued an injunction ordering the Athens-Clarke government not to enforce any parking rules in the disputed spaces in front of Stiles' Lumpkin Street building.

Parking enforcement officials have been told not to take any actions in the Five Points area, said Athens-Clarke County attorney Bill Berryman.

Berryman declined further comment, however.

In the meantime, Stiles is working on a plan to do what many other Five Points businesses do - put up signs warning drivers that parking spaces in front of their storefronts are only for the use of their customers, which was the original intent of the 1954 agreement, according to Stiles.

The general public has used the spaces for decades, however.

But in recent years, Stiles told government officials the company should have greater control over the parking, including the right to tow vehicles.

Last year, the disagreement came to a head.

Three businesses in Stiles' Five

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