FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A Fairhope man, who is suing the Fairhope Planning and Zoning Commission and was prohibited from addressing the City Council on July 28 about planning and zoning issues, is now on the Aug. 11 council agenda, an attorney representing the city said Friday.

“He is going to be allowed to speak,” said Chris Gill, a private attorney representing the city in planning and zoning cases, referring to Paul Ripp, who has sued the commission over the denial of his minor subdivision application filed in June 2007.

“He’ll be treated just like anybody else. They are typically limited to three minutes. He has agreed not to try and argue the merits of the case.”

In his July 24 letter to Ripp’s attorney, Gill stated that Ripp’s request to address the council at its July 28 meeting violated a city policy.

“The City of Fairhope has a long standing policy prohibiting parties involved in pending litigation with the (city) from addressing the subject matter of that pending litigation at a City Council meeting,” Gill wrote to Mark Taupeka, Ripp’s attorney. “The vast majority of Mr. Ripp’s (recommendations regarding planning and zoning issues) clearly arise out of and relate to his pending lawsuit against the city. Based upon the city’s long standing policy. Mr. Ripp will not be permitted to speak at next Monday night’s City Council meeting.”

Taupeka wrote Gill the next day, citing the free speech provisions of the Constitution and other legal support for Ripp’s right to address the council while also involved in litigation with the city.

“It would seem prudent to allow Mr. Ripp to address the City Council so long as he conducts himself with decorum, does not ‘litigate’ his case and is not disruptive to the proceedings at the meeting,” Taupeka wrote.

Ripp said he learned Thursday night that he would be placed on the July 28 council agenda. He also learned he would be allowed to address the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting this Monday night.

“I think it’s a sad state of affairs that my lawyer has to engage in an exchange of letters with the city to remind them of my constitutional rights to be able to speak,” Ripp said Friday. “I will be discussing planning and zoning recommendations at the council meeting but a different issue at the (commission meeting).”

Motions in Ripp’s lawsuit against the city were heard Tuesday in Bay Minette, at which time the attorneys discussed the possibility of Ripp addressing the council meeting, Gill said.

“The Paul Ripp case was argued yesterday on cross-motions (for summary judgment) by the petitioner and city,” City Attorney Marion “Tut” Wynne said Wednesday. “(The court) took the motions under submission. We expect a ruling soon.”

Ripp and his daughter, Mariah Ripp, filed a petition in Baldwin County Circuit Court in September 2007, to compel the commission to allow the property on Derby Lane east of Thompson Hall Road be divided into two lots and for an award of damages caused by the commission’s denial of the application.

“The proposed subdivision of lots in Bay Meadows will not maintain existing neighborhood and does not support the scale and character of existing neighborhood as required by the City of Fairhope Comprehensive plan,” the commission ruled after a number of adjacent property owners and others objected to the application at an Aug. 6 public hearing.

The commission voted 4-2 to deny the application, over the city planning staff’s recommendation that the application be approved. Chairperson Jean Wilson, Councilman Mike Ford, Gary Moore and Lee Turner voted to deny the application, with Dan McCrory and Dick Charles voting to approve the application.

The damages claim of the lawsuit contends that Ripp purchased a house to move onto the lot when it was subdivided “on the assumption that the Planning Commission would approve the application” and that the commission’s denial of the subdivision application caused the Ripps to “lose their ability to acquire the house … and to incur expenses involved in the demolition of the residence.”

Ripp said he purchased a house that had been donated to Eastern Shore Affordable Houses with the intention of moving the house from its location on South Mobile Street to the Derby Avenue location, but when the commission denied the application, he could not move the house there. He said he had no place to move the house, but that it had to be moved because the former owners were building a new house in its place, which led to its demolition.

“We have not found a single case in the state of Alabama that supports an award of damages against a city in a case like this,” Gill said.

Since the denial of his subdivision application, Ripp has obtained hundreds of public records from the city and become interested in other commission decisions, including plans to locate a Publix grocery store at U.S. 98 and Parker Road. He said he may be addressing what he believes are problems in the site clearing and other development aspects of that project at Monday’s commission meeting.

The Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is at 5 p.m., Monday, Aug. 5, in City Council chambers at City Hall.