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ZEBULON - Pike County filed an answer to J. David Hughes v. Pike County Georgia in The Superior Court of Pike County on February 16, 2026. In this case, Hughes had petitioned the Superior Court for a review of the amount of $6,775.99 in Impact Fees that he was charged in September of 2025 when building his home after his request for an appeal and refund was denied in October of 2025.

The Petition requested a jury trial, made a request for a review by the Court with a judgement that would reverse the county’s denial of Hughes’ appeal and grant a request for reasonable costs and attorney’s fees based on the 601 page Petition for Review and accompanying documentation that had been presented. Bloom Parham wrote both the request for an appeal and refund as well as the Petition for a Review of Impact to Pike Superior Court.

This article will review the County's rebuttal to the Petition for Review that has been filed in Pike Superior Court.

Pike County Times has written several articles on Impact Fees prior to this article. There are links to articles that readers might want to review before reading this article so things are clearer than simply reading this article alone. Links are at the bottom of the article.

The Petition and County's Response

J. David Hughes has walked through the process to ask for a refund of $4,371,84 which is the amount over $2,404.15 that was paid to the County based on the original Impact Fee amount versus the Impact Fee that was nearly tripled in January of 2023.

Hughes' request for a refund was heard and denied in the November 12, 2025 County Commission meeting. He had also asked for a way to appeal this amount in his Petition for Appeal filed in October of 2025.

Since commissioners did not specifically address the request for an administrative appeal of the Impact Fee and did not advise Hughes that there will be appeal process at any point in the future, his attorney advised the Court that the appeal has been denied and filed a complaint with Superior Court of Pike County within 30 days of the denial as is required in Pike County’s ordinances.

The Petition for Review of Impact Fees made a request for a jury trial, a request for a review by the Court with a judgement that would reverse the county’s denial of Hughes’ appeal and a request for reasonable costs and attorney’s fees along with any other relief that the Court decides to give based on the County’s conduct which shows “…bad faith, vexatiousness, and stubborn litigiousness, and was carried out with such conscious and reckless disregard" of Hughes' rights under O.C.G.A. § 13-6-11.”

The County gave many defenses to the Court and denied that Hughes was entitled to relief through the Court. It denied that Hughes was entitled to have a hearing from the Pike County Board of Commissioners on the appeal and denied most of the allegations in the appeal based on defenses such as the Petition failed to state a claim that could be granted and that it was untimely filed. It also read that the Petition should be dismissed because Hughes failed to follow county procedure to appeal the assessment of the Impact Fee.

The County advised the Court that the Petition mischaracterized Pike County Ordinance § 157.11(A)(1), denied that the October 8, 2025 letter constituted an appeal of the Impact Fee, and denied that Hughes was entitled to a refund amount between the old Impact Fee and the new Impact Fee.

Closing

Overall, the County defended the Impact Fee, advised that it did not consider the letter to be a formal appeal, and advised the Court that it had followed the law in its procedures.

The County gave multiple grounds for dismissal. It asked the Court to dismiss the claims in the Petition and rule on behalf of the County. It also asked for court costs from Hughes including attorney's fees in its response to the Petition.

This response was written by J. Paul Mitchell and R. Cameron Kline of Freeman Mathis & Gary LLP of Atlanta and Robert L. Morton and Jessie A. Smith of Morton, Morton & Associates LLC. (Morton is both the County Manager and County Attorney for Pike County.)

The response in this case was sent to Simon H. Bloom, Troy R. Covington, and Alex E. Mooring of Bloom Parham, LLP and filed with the Court on February 16, 2026.

Bloom Parham LLP was the same law firm that contested Henry County Impact Fees and won in Henry County Superior Court in 2025. Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, Inc. Resibuilt Homes, LLC, and Peachtree Building Group, LLC were the plaintiffs in the case against Henry County regarding Impact Fees that went through the Superior Court of Henry County and the State Court of Appeals.

That case has since been heard by the State Court of Appeals with a judgement that "reversed in part; vacated in part; and case remanded with direction." The last line of the Henry County decision read as follows: "Because the trial court should have dismissed this action on jurisdictional grounds for the reasons set forth above, we reverse its grant of summary judgment to Appellees and its denial of the County’s motion for summary judgment; we vacate its order to the extent it granted relief based on the merits; and we remand the case to the trial court with direction to dismiss this matter." Those reasons included sovereign immunity, standing, and failure to exhaust administrative remedies. This filing can be read at www.gaappeals.gov and type in 2023SUCV1497 which is the original case number or A25A1843 which is the decision of the Court of Appeals.

Prior Articles

Click here to read from the January 21, 2026 meeting of the Impact Fee Committee: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/impactfeecommittee1.21.26.html. There are links to all of these meetings at the bottom of the page.

The original article entitled, “BREAKING NEWS: Petition for Review of Impact Fees Filed in Pike Superior Court” can be read by clicking here: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/BREAKINGNEWSimpactfeecourtreview1.12.26.html.

The original article entitled, “BREAKING NEWS: Pike County Government Put on Notice Regarding Impact Fees” can be read by clicking here: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/BREAKINGNEWSimpactfeeletter10.14.25.html.

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