The county’s complaint said Tree Top has continued to operate on the property “using the unpermitted access driveway as the sole access to the property” for customers.

The complaint also states the driveway “constitutes a hazard to the safety and welfare of the traveling public” on Dunnavant Valley Road.

The county installed traffic bollards preventing left turns and U-turns from the road into the Tree Top parking lot.

In a response to the complaint filed by Tree Top’s attorneys in February, the developers said they opened the business without obtaining a permit for the driveway because “any further attempts at obtaining the approval request by the defendants became futile and, out of business necessity, defendants proceeded.”

Tree Top also claimed the county is responsible for maintaining and improving its public roadways, and that the commission’s failure to grant Tree Top a driveway permit were “arbitrary, capricious and bear no relationship to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens and inhabitants of Shelby County.”

“Plaintiff’s attempts to deprive defendants of access to a public road are unlawful and unconstitutional and constitute a taking or deprivation of access to the public road to which defendants have a legal right without due process of law,” Tree Top’s response read.