Black landowners said settlement terms let the state flood their properties without penalty, leaving homes damaged and difficult to insure.
By Wesley Walter
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a complaint against the Alabama Department of Transportation recently, alleging the department used unconstitutional and restrictive covenants involving property owners in the Shiloh community.
Beginning in 2017, ALDOT received partial federal funding from the Federal Highway Administration to widen U.S. Route 84 from two lanes to four. The construction resulted in soil erosion and stormwater flooding because of drainage system failures, according to the complaint.
Major flooding occurred in 2019, followed by 13 floods the next year. The most recently reported flood occurred in summer 2025.
Following the initial flooding, residents filed claims with the Alabama Board of Adjustment. Many of those claims were settled in 2020, releasing ALDOT from liability. The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their Board of Adjustment claims as part of the settlement negotiations.
The SPLC’s complaint, filed on behalf of three Black landowners in Shiloh, alleges homeowners were deceived into agreeing to unlawful restrictive covenants that protected ALDOT and the state from future litigation.
The plaintiffs entered into settlement agreements with ALDOT in 2019 that granted the department covenants releasing it from liability for claims related to the homeowners’ lots brought by the current homeowners or their successors.
Several of the covenants also restrict homeowners or their successors from altering their property in ways that would impede the flow of stormwater from ALDOT’s right-of-way.
“While desperately seeking reprieve and redress for ALDOT’s repetitive and ongoing intrusion on their property, Plaintiffs executed settlement agreements and restrictive covenants, defined below, which secured for the State of Alabama the right to flood Plaintiffs’ property without interference from the Plaintiffs and without any liability to Plaintiffs. For these sweeping rights, each Plaintiff was paid only $5,000 or less, an unconscionably nominal amount,” the SPLC filing reads.
According to the SPLC, the covenants have left the homeowners’ properties in flood zones that cannot be insured because of ALDOT’s expansion of U.S. Route 84. The plaintiffs also allege ALDOT exceeded its statutory authority by entering into the covenants and failed to provide just compensation for continued flooding, which they contend violates the Alabama Constitution.
“Land ownership is an important means of creating generational wealth for families, and especially Black families, in this nation,” Crystal McElrath, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC, said. “These restrictive covenants have robbed Black property owners in Shiloh of that opportunity.”
The SPLC complaint seeks immediate repairs to the drainage system and an end to the covenants.
“For nearly a decade, ALDOT has made life for Shiloh residents unbearable,” McElrath added. “The illegal settlement agreements and restrictive covenants were used as a Trojan horse, essentially giving ALDOT the ability to flood land without penalty. Unfortunately, flooding was only the tip of the iceberg, as mold, expensive property damage, unusable driveways and the inability to insure homes have created even more costly hardships that have yet to be remedied.”
ALDOT’s Media and Communications Bureau said the department is aware of the SPLC complaint and is reviewing it.
Wesley Walter is a reporter. You can reach him at wwalter@alreporter.com.