Sweetwater Plantation is NOT Zoned Commercial

We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and is now taking a few moments to slow down and bask in the sunshine before a hectic New Year’s Eve…or at least came out victorious in today’s sales. Let us now take a deep breath and return to the sordid tale of Sweetwater Plantation.

A few days ago, we blogged on the new Neese Real Estate listing, a listing of commercial property:

Now some knowledgeable readers have informed us that the property is NOT zoned commercial. The huge plantation plat remains residential, yet it has no home that is habitable, no home that is by most accounts even salvageable. What does that mean for owner Susan Leigh Smithson?

No savvy developer would buy the property outright without it first being rezoned. What the developer might do is partner with Smithson and present a detailed project to the Florence zoning authorities. The city council would then vote on rezoning as they recently did in Shoal Creek property owned by Shaler Roberts III.

Would an individual purchase the property to live there, to build a new home on? Anything is possible, but would you spend four million dollars on property you would have to keep up and pay taxes on just to call yourself a plantation owner? Would you live in a ramshackle home, no matter how historic? Would you build a new home on the property and then let the old Weeden home slowly decay into a pile of bricks while the public criticized you for doing so? Or even tear the manor house down and face similar wrath?

We’re guessing the answer to those questions is no. We’re guessing that Smithson will have a hard time selling the property unless the City of Florence comes to her rescue. Will it? If we had to guess, we’re going to answer no to that one also.

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In case you missed the latest comment from “The Help,” here it is:

Or go read up on the Elder Abuse complaint filed against Smithson with DHR in regards to the guardianship she was granted after she put on a show complete with crocodile tears before a Colbert County Judge and lied to him stating that she lived here when infact she hadn't set foot in Tuscumbia in over a decade prior to their meeting to get Guardianship over her mother which she used to steal her home and land and prop her mother's identity up like a Credit Zombie so she can keep her sinking business afloat with lines of credit opened in her mother's name that she never intends to repay and clandestine bank accounts in foreign lands where she hides assets from the court's view.

Smithson lives in the lap of luxury and spends $300+ a night at fine restaurants in Buckhead while her 88 year old Mother lives below the poverty level and depends on a social security check every month to make ends meet.

The laundry list of morally corrupt and flat out illegal activity that Smithson is involved in is long and storied. The Jewel theft was but the tip of a massive iceberg that would make Donald Trump himself blush with envy.

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Yesterday a seven year-old girl in Lee County was killed while operating an adult ATV. The adult who was riding behind the child was not identified, but no matter who he/she was, we hope the district attorney prosecutes. Sorry, personal freedom to make choices should not extend to anyone under the age of 18.