CHRISTIANSBURG -- Three of Christiansburg's most powerful movers and shakers are getting ready to rumble.

In one corner is Roger Woody, mover of great housing development dirt piles.

In the other corner are Larry Shelor and David Hagan, leaders of the mega Shelor Motor Mile business and shakers of local government.

Woody -- the town's largest residential developer -- was slapped with a lawsuit in March on behalf of Shelor and Hagan's development company, Hash Investments LLC. With both parties owning a big chunk of Montgomery County's commercial and residential land, it may prove ironic that a mere sliver of property -- an easement measuring 50 feet in width -- is at the heart of the controversy.

"We're not going to give him a right of way, mainly because of his arrogant attitude," Hagan said of Woody.

"The first time I ever met Roger Woody in my entire life was over this right of way," Hagan added. "A judge will decide whether he has a right of way or not. We felt that legal action was our only recourse."

Woody, whose offices are in his Franklin Street Oak Tree Park, isn't taking up the verbal gauntlet.

Not yet.

"Mr. Woody has no comment at this time," said Jim Wesel, spokesman for Showcase Home Builders and Oak Tree Townhomes, two of Woody's primary enterprises.

Hash Investments' lawsuit, filed March 21 in Montgomery County Circuit Court, asks the court to find that Woody has no easement across the Roanoke Street property at Gateway Plaza where Shelor and Hagan own 21.5 acres. Formerly the site of Hill's Plaza, the tract now has a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, a Food Lion and several small businesses rented by various tenants.

The suit also asks for $100,000 in damages and notes that Woody's use of an easement "will cause great and irreparable injury, damage and destruction to the plaintiff's property."

Woody's response, filed by lawyer Gerard Marks, claims that Woody has an easement and denies causing damage to the property, noting that "the defendant has ... patched and paved portions of the lot over which his easement crosses."

Woody, who owns an 8.7-acre tract behind the ReStore, successfully got the parcel rezoned for business in 1998, saying then that he hoped to use it for a retail operation. Christiansburg Planning Director Randy Wingfield said his office has received only grading plans thus far for the property.

In addition, Woody got an adjacent 46-acre tract rezoned from agricultural to residential in 1998, despite an outcry from Hans Meadow subdivision residents over increased traffic and flooding concerns they associated with the development. The tract, which is next to the subdivision, is the site of Woody's proposed Robin Hood Estates. Wingfield said plans for that have been approved for 63 single-family homes.

To access the Robin Hood Estates site, Woody has graded a new road off Hans Meadow Road. Until recently, however, he was using a stretch of the Gateway Plaza parking lot to access the smaller tract slated for retail development.

That's when Hagan and Shelor cried out.

"We own the old Hill's Plaza up there," Hagan said. "One day we see dump trucks running up through our lot, tearing the pavement up."

When Hagan and Shelor bought the property in 2003, "we bought it with no right of ways through there," Hagan said.

Apparently, Woody had an easement at one point. On Sept. 8, 1997, he filed suit against Daniel Kamin, a Pennsylvania real estate agent who owned Hill's Plaza, and sought an injunction against Kamin as a result of the Food Lion store construction. Woody's easement at that time ran in front of the present-day Food Lion. Kamin, who subsequently sold the property, has little recollection of the suit.

"I can't really remember," he said. "We don't even keep records for tax purposes past seven years. All I can recall is there was a dispute of some sort and somehow it got worked out."

What happened, according to a 1999 court record, is that the existing easement was "released and extinguished" and another 50-foot right of way "for ingress and egress from the Woody property" was agreed upon. The new easement was closer to the center of the shopping center parking lot.

But, according to Hagan and Shelor, there was a problem.

The easement was not recorded -- at least not in timely fashion.

"It's our position that Mr. Woody does not have an entrance in or out," said lawyer Kendall Clay representing Hash Investments. "Woody would have had that easement had it been recorded. Kamin sold this property to Hash. When Hash bought it, they bought it not subject to that easement. Whatever rights Woody has would be against Kamin. It does not give him an easement on this property."

Hagan and Shelor said they were at first willing to work with Woody. But Hagan said Woody showed up at his office last October with his lawyer.

According to Hagan, Marks and Woody presented a piece of paper that they said showed the right of way agreed upon eight years earlier had been recorded.

Dubbing it "the Houdini right of way that just appeared," Hagan said that's when he told Woody not to use the property at all.

After Shelor and Hagan filed suit, Judge Bobby Turk ordered the case to a settlement conference conducted by retired Judge J. Colin Campbell. All the parties met with Campbell on April 30.

"The parties could not agree on a settlement," Campbell said. "It was pretty evident after a while that they would not agree."

Marks, Woody's attorney of record, has not returned repeated phone messages in recent days. His office, in Woody's Oak Tree Park, was closed during business hours when a reporter went there on two occasions this week.

Shelor and Hagan said that Woody has ceased using their parking lot and did repair the damaged pavement.

They said the court will hear the matter Oct. 16, none too soon for them.

"It has put us in a position where we can't market our property," Shelor said. "We just want to have the issue resolved."

This won't be the first legal battle for Shelor and Hagan. As owners of Shelor Motor Mile, the two led a protest against the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors' merchants capital tax rate for years. In 2001, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that they were within their rights to move vehicles out of the county before Jan. 1 to avoid the inventory tax. The supervisors later cut the tax rate.

Hash Investments, one of several companies owned by Shelor and Hagan, owns $26 million in Montgomery County real estate, according to the Commissioner of the Revenue's Real Estate Assessment Office. Woody, the office reports, owns $46 million.