Joe Imel/Daily NewsAlvaton volunteer firefighter Pat McGrath puts out a fire Tuesday at a greenhouse at Plano Road Produce. No injuries were reported.

A federal judge in Bowling Green dismissed lawsuits Monday filed by local landowner Matt Baker against neighboring Beech Bend Raceway Park, former City-County Planning Commission Executive Director Andy Gillies and Warren Fiscal Court.

&#8220I think the court made the right decision,” said attorney Whayne Priest, who has handled all Beech Bend-related litigation for the county.

Baker filed suit against fiscal court, Gillies and Beech Bend, stating separate reasons why he thought each one acted illegally. The case was filed in Warren Circuit Court, but later moved to U.S. District Court.

&#8220Those claims were dismissed,” Priest said.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell filed separate orders and opinions granting defense motions to dismiss the cases. Fiscal court was shielded by two types of immunity, and Baker couldn’t sue based on non-enforcement of a zoning regulation, Russell said.

Baker’s suit says the planning commission hasn’t enforced its own ordinance – that Beech Bend’s land is zoned for agriculture – and so shouldn’t be used for a racetrack or amusement park.

The default zoning for Warren County land is agriculture; unless specifically rezoned for another use, all local land is agriculturally zoned.

In the case against Gillies – who recently moved to take a job in Texas – Russell said Baker didn’t exhaust his other legal options before suing, like going to the county Code Enforcement Board and seeking compensation for any property damage at the state level. His argument of discrimination was rejected with the statement that landowners are not a legally protected minority.

Baker’s case against Beech Bend itself was denied because an alleged governmental failure to enforce an ordinance upon one landowner does not make that landowner liable to suit by another landowner, Russell’s order says.

The dismissals didn’t address the basic argument in Baker’s Sept. 8 suits, which charge that Beech Bend violated zoning standards, and local governments ignored that. He said since Beech Bend was briefly closed more than two decades ago, it shouldn’t have been allowed to reopen without rezoning. His suit sought to shut down Beech Bend and force the removal of &#8220all facilities and improvements not in existence at the time that these defendants took over ownership,” meaning since about 1986.

Gillies responded that the 2001 zoning ordinance should apply, and Beech Bend was already operating when that came into effect.

Baker has said the suit was part of a larger strategy, and he was willing to raise one legal issue after another against Beech Bend until Beech Bend owner Dallas Jones acknowledged the access road as Baker’s private drive.

Attorney David Broderick, handling Jones’ part of the zoning case, said Russell’s ruling showed clearly that Baker had no cause for action and so shouldn’t have sued. As of this morning he hadn’t heard of any further court action in the works, but said talks are planned that could settle the dispute outside of court.

All those involved have agreed to sit down in April and talk about an &#8220all-encompassing” resolution, Broderick said.

Baker said the meeting was discussed last fall, but April is the first time all parties, lawyers and a mediator could schedule time to meet. He views it as a great opportunity to finally resolve the whole issue, he said.

In the meantime, however, Baker plans to continue his legal quest.

&#8220Judge Russell ruled that I have to file a complaint with the Code Enforcement Board rather than going to court first, so my intentions are to put some materials together and file them with the Code Enforcement Board as soon as is practical,” Baker said, noting that the board’s mailing address – 1141 State St. – is the planning commission office, the same as Gillies’.

&#8220I guess I’ll send a similar complaint to the same address and proceed along those lines,” Baker said. &#8220I expect to ask for Judge Russell’s reconsideration and go from there.”

The dispute between Beech Bend and Baker has been fought in various lawsuits since 2003. It began – and has mostly concerned – the ownership of a 228-foot strip of road leading past Baker’s house to Beech Bend property. It was used by fans going to Beech Bend’s racetrack, blocking Baker’s driveway for hours on busy weekends.

Baker argued the road was his private drive, and therefore closed to the public, while Jones said it was a county road. The case was moved to Logan County because of heavy local publicity. In May 2005, Logan Circuit Judge Tyler Gill ruled the disputed strip was abandoned by the county in a 1993 road map revision, and was therefore closed to race traffic. It has been shut by Gill’s order ever since.

But on Aug. 18, the Kentucky Court of Appeals said it is indeed a county road, and ordered Gill to revise his ruling accordingly. Gill hasn’t, and Baker is seeking a hearing before the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Jones has long argued that closing the road would lead to the loss of major racing events at Beech Bend. In October, the National Hot Rod Association announced its 25,000-visitor hot rod reunion wouldn’t return to Beech Bend next year. Jones blamed that on the road controversy, but NHRA officials said it had more to do with the event outgrowing Beech Bend’s facilities in general. Loss of the hot rod reunion will have a $4.5 million impact on Warren County, according to the state.

The sponsor of two more large racing events said after the NHRA announcement that he, too, would probably not bring his business back to the racetrack next year, and he specifically cited worries about the disputed access road as the reason.

Beech Bend’s eight or 10 large racing events regularly draw thousands of people from other states. The park, which includes an amusement park as well as the raceway, is the biggest tourist attraction in Warren County.

Now, the HAVOC Custom Truck Show has announced it’s outgrown its Louisville venue and will come to Beech Bend instead on Aug. 11 and 12.

Judging by the truck show’s draw elsewhere, it could bring 12,000 to 15,000 people to Beech Bend, Jones said.

Work is expected to start soon on a $350,000 project to widen the main entrance to Beech Bend, though it won’t be done in time for the start of the park’s racing season May 11. The state will reimburse the county $300,000 for the work, and businessman David Garvin donated part of an adjoining field he owns to allow some straightening of the sharp turn into Beech Bend’s entrance.

The work is expected to repave and widen each lane by 1.5 feet and remove the row of 191 trees that now stands between them. The lanes will remain at different elevations, requiring a guardrail down the middle, according to the state grant agreement; and the county-owned park entrance road will also get a two-way turning lane.