SOUTHPORT, N.Y. (WENY) -- The Town of Southport recently asked Supreme Court Justice Christopher Baker to throw away the roughly 3-year-old lawsuit filed by Chamberlain Acres Garden Center & Florist for discrimination. However, Baker refused to dismiss the case and allowed the plaintiffs to add the town’s planning board to the list of defendants.  

“We never wanted to go there,” Charles Todd, co-owner of Chamberlain Acres Garden Center & Florist, said, adding, “We were just trying to improve our infrastructure.”  

In the early months of 2020, Chamberlain Acres wanted to add a 60 by 80 pole barn with two bathrooms and even got a loan of over $100,000 in anticipation of the work. After months of waiting, they were told they had to become an event center if they wanted to upgrade their property but weren't given a reason why their upgrades were problematic.  

“They tried to make it look like we were applying for a wedding venue,” Todd said, adding, “We weren't looking to become an event center, we weren't planning any big events, anything like that.  

After waiting months to proceed with expansions, Southport made a special plan for Chamberlain Acres. According to Charles Todd, Co-owner of Chamberlain Acres, that only made things worse.  

The revised plan was originally written for a rodeo venue in Pine City, N.Y. three years ago, preventing Chamberlain Acres from running as it did before COVID or before any of the desired expansions were proposed.  

“We waited eight to nine months for us to be handed a code that this business couldn’t run on,” Todd said, adding, “That's when I started realizing something's really, really wrong.”  

After Todd and his partner, Glenn Miller, filed a lawsuit, The Town of Southport asked Supreme Court Honorable Christopher Baker to throw the lawsuit out. On November 22nd, the judge refused, dismissing all claims Southport tried to dismiss the case, saying the court was unpersuaded by the defendant's framing of the issue.  

The judge also brought up that Todd and Miller were treated differently by the town than the owners of Bradley Farms, a similar local business owned by town board member Dan Hurley.  

“We've been in business here for 15 years now,” Todd said, adding, “(We) have never used a platform for anything other than serving our customers, running a local farmers market, and just trying to do the right thing.”