KIMBERLY — To look at the grassy strip beside a small parking lot, you would never guess that it was officially a city street.

But the 10-foot-wide strip off of Jefferson Street in Kimberly is officially listed as an alley, even though it hasn’t been used as any sort of roadway for decades. There’s no pavement or gravel, not even a couple of parallel ruts. In fact, there are trees right in the middle of it.

Kimberly Church of God wants the city to vacate that alley and let it have a portion of it, so that the church can fill in a space between its existing parking lot and another one that it is building on the other side of the alley.

But Leslie and Tim Armstrong are objecting to the church’s request, saying that the request would cut off access to their home.

It’s a conflict that will be decided by the Kimberly City Council.

The Armstrong home is located behind the now-closed Sandlin store on Stouts Road, which was operated by Leslie Armstrong’s family.

“The original store property was bought by my great-great-grandfather, Mr. Albritton, who built the store in 1902, and then he bought all of this property where the house is,” Leslie Armstrong said. “My grandfather took it over and renamed it Sandlin’s General Merchandise.”

The store closed in 2003 when Noel Sandlin retired.

The Armstrongs access one side of their home via a driveway on the west side of the store building, which crosses the alley. It’s the same alley that delivery trucks used to bring merchandise to the back of the store.

The alley officially extends from Jefferson Street all the way to the old Louisville and Nashville Railroad right of way, itself relegated to branch-line status when the railroad moved its main line to Decatur and then abandoned it entirely in the 1990s. It was the L&N who laid out the original city streets, including the alley.

The church only wants a 10-by-50-foot chunk next to Jefferson Street; the remaining alley would then be landlocked by private property.

“We didn’t know exactly where the property lines were until the church had it surveyed in the 80s, and then it was apparent that part of their lot was in the alley,” Leslie Armstrong said. “If we should ever have to sell this store property, we would need this alley to get to where we park.”

Already the Armstrongs have won a small victory, as the church withdrew a request for the city to vacate another street on the other side of the Armstrong property. That street, variously identified as “Janie Street” or “James Street” on old plats, is also still owned by the city, even though it also shows no signs of being a street. The Armstrongs use that street to get to a basement-level door on the north side of their house, and their mailbox is located where that street intersects Jefferson. They also have their garbage picked up there.

“The city requested that we put the mailbox there when we gave up our post office box,” Armstrong said. “That’s how our property reaches Jefferson Street.”

Part of the Armstrongs’ beef with the church is the way they went about the request, without contacting them first. “We received our notice of the first public hearing the Saturday beforehand, and then a letter [from the church].”

The couple talked with Kimberly Church of God Pastor Dr. Stan Cooke during the process, but Leslie Armstrong said Cooke and the church have expressed different reasons at different times for wanting the alley property.

“When he [Cooke] went before the council the first time, he told them we could build a driveway to Warrior-Kimberly Road [across the old railroad], but we’re too far away and there’s also a drainage ditch and private property between there and here,” Leslie Armstrong said. “That’s expensive. I thought that was ridiculous on his part.”

Cooke stated in the public hearing that the church had a right to the alley because of the legal principle of “adverse possession” — basically, that the church has maintained the abandoned alley for years as if it were its own.

Cooke declined to comment for this report.

The issue is scheduled to be decided at the council’s next regular session on Aug. 14.