As midnight approached on Jan. 9, Waynesville resident and attorney Gavin Brown was on the phone with a law student who was using a cell phone from the law library at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He was researching Haywood County’s origin in 1808, the legislation that split it from Buncombe and established a separate county to the west.

By the morning of Jan. 10, Brown had the information he needed, and he filed a lawsuit challenging Haywood County’s right to build a new justice center on property in Ratcliffe Cove, just outside the town limits.

The lawsuit moves the debate about where to build Haywood County’s new justice center into a new arena. A Superior Court judge will now decide if the facility must remain in the town limits of Waynesville, or if the term “county seat” is simply a place designated by county commissioners to hold court.

“This lawsuit is strictly about location,” said Brown during a press conference on the steps of the historic courthouse in downtown Waynesville. “This does not address issues of size, architecture or cost. Those issues will be fought in the court of public opinion.”

County attorney Chip Killian, though, believes the county is on strong legal footing. He will ask a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The lawsuit challenging the right to move court outside the town limits is the most recent development in what has become a bitter, divisive attempt to build a new justice center. Ratcliffe Cove is the third site discussed as a possible location, and tests are underway now to determine if it will meet engineering and environmental requirements. The 20 acres will cost about $1.8 million, and three commissioners — Chairman Jim Stevens, Wade Francis and Bill Noland — support purchasing it and putting both the justice center and a new jail and law enforcement center on the site.

In addition to location, there has been heated debate about the size and scope of the project. Many have argued that the population and space needs projections were inflated, resulting in plans for a building much larger than what is actually needed. A shifting majority of county commissioners has moved the project forward, but Jim Stevens and Bill Noland have the been the strongest defenders of the needs study.

One commissioner named in the suit — Mary Ann Enloe — said she supports the suit and would have considered being a plaintiff if it would not have meant suing herself.

“I resent being named in the lawsuit because I agree with him,” said Enloe.

While the Haywood County Board is divided (the vote to buy the Ratcliffe Cove property was 3-2), Waynesville aldermen are at least united in the decision not to annex the proposed site. Brown, a Waynesville aldermen who filed the suit as a private citizen, said he questioned fellow aldermen about annexing the site beforehand. None indicated a willingness to do so, he said.

Burton Smith is another Waynesville attorney who has been following the siting issue. He says he represents several others who considered filing a lawsuit to contest moving the courthouse out of the downtown area.

“I believe there are quite a number of people who would like to be a party to this lawsuit,” said Smith.

The suit asks the judge to impose an injunction against the county that could block it from purchasing the Ratcliffe Cove land.

Noland says all Brown is doing is slowing the project.

“Under state statutes we are mandated to provide court facilities. He is wasting time and effort and is just going to slow us down.”