SUMMERTOWN, Tenn. -- People who have spent time in Tennessee have heard about The Farm. The Farm is a Lawrence County cooperative community founded by hippies in the early 70s and still run by peace-loving vegetarians.

VIDEO: Lawsuit Filed To Prevent Military School In Summertown

They have now filed their first lawsuit in farm history, trying to block a former Secret Service agent from opening a military school and becoming their next-door neighbor in Summertown.

When they heard a subsidiary of a company called Mirabilis Ventures was planning on buying the adjoining 1,800 acres to the farm to build a military training school, they said they couldn't believe it.

“It was very jolting news. We’ve always gotten along with our neighbors and valued our friendships with our neighbors. It was quite a shock to hear that a paramilitary was putting themselves right on our border where our kids ride our horses and live right next door. It’s silly to even consider putting it there,” said farm resident Barbara Jefferson.

Former Secret Service agent Kevin Billings was one of the key players in buying the land in Lawrence County.

That's when The Farm decided to take action by suing the owners and potential buyers of the land under Tennessee's nuisance law that states you cannot do anything that will greatly disturb your neighbor.

“Three days later, after we filed the lawsuit, we got a call from a lawyer in the D.C. area, a big law firm, and he says to us ‘don't worry about a thing. We've changed our mind. We’re going to put in a green residential development.’ So we said ‘OK sounds good.’ But it is a little hard to believe. We were like, ‘we’ll take your word for it.’ And then in the last two months we keep hearing different stories. The stories keeps changing,” said farm attorney Alan Speck.

Channel 4 News spoke to a company spokesman Tuesday by phone and he said the story is over.

A Stratus spokesman said, “They looked at the land, saw its inherent value and saw that there is a community nearby and realized it was unsuitable for this kind of activity. They then planned to put in a green residential community, but that still didn't stop the lawsuit. They refused to drop the suit even though the time for closing has passed and they are still pursuing it. The company said it has never owned the land, has no intention of owning the land, and everyone is stunned this is still going on.”

A representative from The Farm said they were holding the lawsuit just in case there was a change in plans for the land.