Starting about two weeks ago, the Augusta auto shop owner started placing old car hoods around the perimeter of an undeveloped, 4-acre piece of property he owns on Ingleside Drive.

More than 20 mismatched car hoods - some dented, many with peeling paint - are propped against a line of rope. He's calling it a fence.

"I wanted a fence, and it's my damn land," Mr. Davison said Thursday from his Reynolds Street auto shop.

His home is across the street from the undeveloped tract, which sits at the entrance of several west Augusta subdivisions. Cars driving by the busy, two-lane stretch off Berckmans Road often slow down to look, and passers-by are quick to ask for an explanation.

"It's degrading to the neighborhood," said Lanny Terry, a Richmond County Sheriff's Office deputy whose elderly mother lives across the street from the property. "It makes it look like a big junk pile, and I've got a feeling he's going to keep putting more hoods up there."

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Mr. Davison has been lobbying the city to buy his land and preserve it as protected green space. Located along Rae's Creek, the property is prone to flooding and should not be developed, his attorney told Augusta commissioners.

Last week, commissioners - acting on advice from green space officials - offered Mr. Davison less than half the property's $120,000 appraised value. Mr. Davison said he is in financial straits and that the offer is unacceptable.

"They elected not to buy it, and I'm electing to try to utilize my land," he said, denying that he is trying to make a political statement.

Neighbors report that car hoods appeared about the same time commissioners turned down his request.

"I go by there 10 times a day," said John H. Pearson, a retired U.S. Army colonel who lives in a neighborhood off of Ingleside Drive. "He started with two or three hoods, and I said, 'A junkyard is coming."'

On Thursday afternoon, 23 hoods were lined up.

District 7 Commissioner Tommy Boyles drove by to see the hoods after receiving several constituent complaints, he said.

Twenty-three car hoods line property along Ingleside Drive. Property owner Jimmy Davison began putting up the hoods after Augusta commissioners voted against buying his land. Mr. Davison wants it preserved as green space. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

"They're all multicolors and everything. If they were all black or all white, it might be better, but they're all multicolored," he said.

Mr. Boyles said the city's license and inspection department has been notified and is "on top of the situation." A notice that Mr. Davison is in violation of city zoning ordinances was hand-delivered Thursday, department Director Rob Sherman said.

But the hoods won't necessarily come down right away. Inspection officials say Mr. Davison has 10 days to respond before he will be issued a citation.

Mr. Davison's property meets criteria to be purchased with state green space funds, including being in a flood plain, but it is too expensive, said Deke Copenhaver, the executive director of the Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy land trust, which manages the program.

About 80 acres of land have been bought for green space protection in the past year, and another 32 acres have been donated. The average price the city has paid for green space ranges between $2,000 and $3,000 an acre, and Mr. Davison is asking about $30,000 an acre, Mr. Copenhaver said.

"It does qualify for the program, but at that price, there are other properties that would be higher priorities," he said.

Reach Heidi Coryell Williams at (706) 823-3215 or heidi.williams@augustachronicle.com.