Second Judicial Circuit to hear City of Aiken argument seeking dismissal of the Project Pascalis lawsuit.

by Don Moniak

September 19, 2023

On July 5, 2022, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of nine plaintiffs seeking to stop the $100 million plus downtown demolition and redevelopment effort known as Project Pascalis. The ninety-six page filing alleged dozens of violations of State of South Carolina laws governing community development, local government comprehensive planning, ethics and conduct of public officials, and freedom of information; as well as the City of Aiken’s zoning ordinance.

The Blake et al vs. City of Aiken et al complaint named as defendants the Pascalis project developer, the City of Aiken attorney, and three City of Aiken institutions and its individual members: Aiken City Council, the Design Review Board (DRB), and the Aiken Municipal Development Commission (AMDC).

As reported in Cancelled, Stopped…., at one time there were fourteen lawyers from eight different firms representing twenty-eight different defendants. Eventually, attorneys from both sides agreed to remove individual city officials from the case, and move forward with only the City of Aiken, AMDC, DRB, and City Attorney as defendants.

After a year of filings, including defendants’ answers to the complaint, numerous motions to dismiss and shield officials from discovery, requests for more specificity, and two amended complaints by Plaintiffs, the City of Aiken filed a Motion for Summary Judgement on Mootness Grounds on July 21, 2023.

That motion will be heard today, September 19, 2023, by the Second Judicial Circuit Court of South Carolina. The hearing, to be held at 2 p.m. in the Aiken County Courthouse, Courtroom 5, is open for public viewing.

The City’s motion seeks to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint on the basis that “all of the issues raised by the Plaintiffs are now moot and that there is simply no longer a justiciable controversy for this Court to decide.” The city’s attorneys argue that since “Project Pascalis is no more,” and the AMDC was dissolved, no issues remain for the court to resolve; and it is not the court’s role to resolve “academic questions” submitted by the Plaintiffs.

As reported in A Continuation of Project Pascalis, on September 15th Plaintiff Luis Rinaldini submitted an affidavit arguing that two ongoing projects on the Pascalis properties now owned by the City of aiken “are simply a continuation of Project Pascalis.”

On September 18th, a Plaintiffs Memorandum in Opposition to City of Aiken’s Motion for Summary Judgement was submitted, which states:

“If the sole object of this lawsuit were to stop Project Pascalis, there might be some merit to the Defendant’s argument. The relief sought by the Plaintiffs, however, is a declaration that the actions of the city were unlawful and wrong…Despite the failure of the project, the City has not conceded that it did anything wrong or violated any provision of state or local law…”