All Judy Chastain wanted to do is protect her neighborhood.

But as the homeowner quickly learned, when you’re dealing with rezonings, there are all sorts of variables, including a forged deed and the arrest of a real estate agent, that come into play before the issue is voted on by the Fayette County Commission.

Tomorrow night, Chastain and several of her neighbors on New Hope Road will ask the County Commission to turn down a request for a new subdivision adjacent to her land.

Christine Newton and Claudine Banks want to rezone 38.92 acres from Agricultural-Residential to R-45 to build 31 homes, and the request has received an approval vote from the Planning Commission and the county’s staff.

But in researching the efforts about the rezoning, Chastain’s efforts have led her everywhere from the Fayette County Courthouse to talks with the Sheriff’s Office over an alleged forgery of a quitclaim deed.

Chastain’s story starts earlier in September when she heard that the property was up for rezoning. After looking at the initial development plan, Chastain was not happy. She discovered that she would soon have eight backyards on three sides of her property.

“It’s a horseshoe effect and some of the yards would be within 20 feet of our property line,” she said.

Chastain also discovered that in order for the development to be built, a one-tenth of an acre strip would have to be acquired from the Hopeful Community Club.

When Chastain talked to the trustees of the center, she learned that they really didn’t have any control over the property.

“The land was given to them by the Fayette County Board of Education and if the property was not used as a club, it would revert back to the board,” Chastain said.

Chastain talked further with the trustees and learned that a man who claimed to be with the county’s attorney’s office met with the trustees and asked them to sign a quitclaim deed for the small amount of property.

“They told him that they couldn’t do that because the property was not actually owned by them,” she said.

Shortly after the initial meeting, the man called back the trustees and said not to worry about the situation because it had been resolved. That piqued Chastain’s curiosity and she headed to the courthouse to do research on the property.

As she was going through documents, she found a quitclaim deed that bore the signatures of three trustees signed May 4. When she got home, she asked to meet with the trustees and they were stunned by her information.

“None of the trustees had signed the document and wanted their names cleared,” she said.

Chastain also learned the man who met with the trustees was not with the county’s attorney’s office. Instead, she discovered his name was Wayne Kelly and he was a real estate agent.

Chastain reported the situation to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and on Sept. 21, according to department spokesperson Belinda McCastle, Kelly was charged with three cases of forgery in the first degree. Kelly, 48, of Fayetteville posted a $16,800 bond on the same day.

In the meantime, the rezoning went to the Fayette County Planning Commission Oct. 6 with a new plan for an entrance that did not include the Hopeful Community Club property. The Planning Commission approved it with a 3-2 vote, and now it heads to the Fayette County Commission tomorrow night at 7 p.m. for its final hurdle.

While Chastain is glad the property no longer uses the Hopeful Community Club property, she still has concerns over the rezoning.

“We’re still talking about 31 septic tanks added to the property. Most of the current property owners are on wells and it causes some concern to add that many new homes out here,” she said.

Chastain understands that people have a right to sell their property, but just would like to see something less intensive on the pasture land.

The meeting is at the Fayette County Administrative Complex on Stonewall Avenue.

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