A private landowner handcuffed and arrested on his own ground for refusing to allow utility company bulldozers to wield eminent domain and clearcut his timber? A helluva showdown is erupting in the most significantly hot property rights case in the U.S.
“This is still America,” says Fenn Church, standing beside yellow caution tape at the edge of his 416-acre property in the crosshairs of an Alabama Power Company (APCO) 74-mile, $248 million transmission line. “I’m not afraid to be put in cuffs, because it shows the public how far power companies will go to crush someone’s rights. I’m not violent or belligerent, but I’m not moving. They can put me in jail.”
Indeed. A hearing is set for Monday, November 8, in Shelby County Circuit Court, under Judge Jonathan Spann. APCO seeks a restraining order against Church—on his own land.
Yet, all the while, an alternative route for the transmission line exists—the same adjoining pathway Fenn has urged APCO to use from the get-go. Remarkably, Church is in possession of an email letter from an adjoining property owner inviting APCO to consider the alternative path.
“APCO attorneys also have the letter. They know,” Church insists. “And now the Department of Interior, USDA, and Corps of Engineers are all requesting APCO stand down until they talk to my neighbor who is interested in leasing or selling more land for an easement to construct the power line.”
John Rich, Special Envoy for American Landowners within USDA, addressed Church’s situation in an X post on November 6: This will make your blood boil. @alabamapower has defied the wishes of The Army Corps of Engineers, The DOI, The USDA, and me. They have an alternative route with a willing land owner, but refuse to use it.
“I’m standing strong and telling the simple truth,” Church adds, “because the last thing APCO wants is for the public to know how they operate.”
Man vs Machines
On November 3, Tuesday, Election Day, APCO crews approached Church’s land in central Alabama’s Shelby County, outside Calera: 416 rolling acres of wooded ground, including heavy old-growth hardwoods, a 27-acre lake, and multiple deer and turkey plots, all split by the clear flow of rock-bottomed Buxahatchee Creek. Church also lives on the land.
“Guess why they came on Election Day? It was 100% by design,” Church insists. “They believed I wouldn’t be able to get any media attention or support. They were wrong.”
Church mustered two television stations and 15 supporters to the rim of his acreage, to stand in the way of four Caterpillar D8 dozers, two 36-ton Komatsu excavators, and two tub grinders. Approaching Church on foot, the APCO rep stated: “The crews are ready to proceed with the clearing. We need your group to step back 300’.”
“I’m not stepping past my line right here,” Church responded. “Yall can have me arrested.”
The clear-cutting equipment temporarily reversed course, but with those words of defiance, Church faces a restraining order as APCO faces a time-crunch to complete the 74-mile power line intended to supply 1.6 million customers and new data centers between Montgomery and Birmingham. Construction completion is set for May 2027, and Church’s property is the last link in the chain. Boiled down, one man, Church, is in the way of for-profit APCO’s $248 million project.
How much did APCO initially offer Church in January 2025 for the permanent corridor and easement on 415 acres, including his driveway? “They said $80,000,” Church recalls. “Everything forever for $80,000.”
Backfire?
APCO’s restraining order request goes to Judge Spann—the same judge who granted a temporary injunction on September 22, blocking APCO from going on Church’s land. However, one month later, the Alabama Supreme Court gave APCO access to Church’s ground.
(For more detail on Church’s battle with APCO, see Alabama Landowner Fights Power Company in Monster Eminent Domain Battle)
“Despite a viable route right beside me, and despite the letter from my adjoining landowner basically telling APCO the same thing, APCO wants to clearcut my land for 600 yards and 125’ wide at a minimum, and that includes trees that are up to 250 years old, and disturbing a wetland. It means forever access and goes across my entire property because they want to use my road system on a permanent basis.”
However, Church believes APCO’s restraining order request could backfire. “I don’t know how Judge Spann will respond, but when APCO lost in court the first time, they basically told Judge Spann he had no authority and that he didn’t know the law. Unbelievable.”
Apple to Core
APCO claims the easement, clearcutting, and changes to Church’s property will have no significant impact on the land value.
Church call’s APCO’s contention regarding no diminution in value “outrageous,” as he previously explained to Agweb.com and noted in court, comparing his overall property to a shiny apple. “Alabama Power wants to take a bite out of it. Then, all these other dozen companies, using Alabama Power’s easement, also get their bite. I’m left with a core… How could anyone believe that the value would remain the same and an apple core is worth the same as a whole shiny red apple?”
“Bottom line for now,” Church concludes. “I’ve got support from Washington where they realize an alternate route exits, and APCO can’t deny it. There’s a reasonable solution in plain sight for everyone, instead of tearing up the Constitution.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
