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The Velda Shore lawsuit against Maple Lanes Farms is on track for a February trial.

On Wednesday, Blount County Chancellor Telford Forgety allowed Shore to amend the complaint against farm owner Bob Schmidt but indicated his readiness for the matter, which has stretched on for almost two years, to reach conclusion.

The lawsuit is scheduled to be tried on Feb. 10, 2010. In the amended lawsuit, Shore asks that Schmidt abide by the terms of the Board of Zoning Appeals’s January 2008 decision to limit the farm to hosting only one concert per year.

“The activities of the defendants’ constitute an on-going violation of the BZA, and therefore a nuisance per se for violation of the county zoning regulations and plaintiff prays that this honorable court prohibit and abate any activities that are not clearly agricultural in nature, or otherwise authorized by the BZA in their Jan. 3, 2008, decision,” her attorney, Kevin Shepherd, wrote in the motion to amend.

The Greenback farm has been home to an annual corn maze in the fall and the Strawberry Jam music festival in the spring. Shore sought help from the BZA in late 2007, complaining about traffic and noise.

Shore has claimed the Maple Leaf Farms property is not zoned for any use outside agricultural, and that the “commercial and tourist activities” that have gone on there have “brought increased traffic, loud noise and congestion to a peaceful residential area that is neither designed for nor zoned for these commercial and tourist activities.

Schmidt’s attorney, Brent Johnson, opposed the motion to amend the complaint on grounds that Forgety had already declared the activities to not constitute a nuisance when the chancellor denied a request for a preliminary injunction against Schmidt in April 2008. Forgety, however said that his conclusion during that particular hearing was based on the idea that the court could not enjoin an future event on the grounds that is was a potential nuisance.

Meanwhile, the chancellor denied a motion to join the lawsuit with a Shore’s Circuit Court case against Building Commissioner Roger Fields because Fields or his attorney was not present. Afterwards, Shepherd said his client will proceed with both lawsuits. Shore’s complaint against Fields takes issue with behind-the-scenes actions that took place before the BZA decision.