Natchez — A development company that was denied approval by the city to build a housing project in 2008 is prepared to take the matter to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals voted 6-2 to uphold an Adams County Circuit Court judgment in favor of the city regarding a zoning dispute between the Dallas-based company and the city.

The dispute stems from the denial of the company’s request to rezone 25 acres for a proposed project that would include 65 single-family units, stretching from Old Washington Road to Oriole Terrace. Nine acres of the land were zoned single-family residential and the remaining 17 acres open land.

Michael V. Cory Jr., one of the attorneys representing Roundstone, said the company first proposed the project to the city in 2006.

Cory said developers from Roundstone received letters from Natchez Planning and Zoning Department officials, who he said told the company the land was zoned properly. He said the company relied on that information and purchased the land with plans to develop it.

Documents from the company’s case against the city in the Mississippi Court of Appeals include e-mails from former city planners Andrew L. Smith and Dennis E. Story to David Strange of the Neighborhood Development Alliance LLC. The e-mails state that land the proposed housing project would be on was zoned as R-1 single-family residential, and the use of the property for single-family development was permitted under the zoning classification.

The appeals court opinion states the letters were incorrect about the zoning status of the land. It also states the letters are not addressed to Roundstone, and it is unclear the relationship, if any, the company had with the recipients of the letters.

Court documents state the planning commission required Roundstone to apply to rezone the property before it would approve the project’s site plan. The commission subsequently denied the company’s request for rezoning.

The Natchez Board of Aldermen upheld the planning commission’s denial at a February 2008 meeting. Several residents from neighborhoods around the proposed project spoke out against it at a planning commission hearing and the aldermen meeting

Judge Forest “Al” Johnson ruled earlier this year in favor of Roundstone in a separate lawsuit against the city in the Adams County Circuit Court for breach of contract and misrepresentation.

The judgment for the company in the case, Cory said, will be determined at a hearing that has not been scheduled because the appeals case is pending.

Cory said the company filed the suit because it purchased the land under the impression there would be no problems with developing the housing project.

Cory said his clients believe the city denied the company’s requests for development arbitrarily and capriciously.

Cory said the housing development project is dead because the Roundstone lost its tax credit. He said the company is pursuing the matter because the developers still own the land and think it should be zoned residential.

“If the land is worth less now, we will certainly seek to obtain damages from the city.

Roundstone’s attorneys plan to file a petition for rehearing to the Court of Appeals. Cory said the petitions are usually denied, so the appeal will be taken to the state supreme court.

Natchez City Attorney Everett Sanders denied comment because the matter was pending litigation.