INC NEWS - Scott King Development: please help South Durham in their opposition

Tue Jan 30 13:14:18 EST 2007

Hi everybody. I got this via email today and my
neighborhood is deeply concerned about the Scott King
project, the way the developer has lacked
consideration and in fact, misrepresented it, to the
planning department, and the possibility that this
area may end up being completely destroyed (as far as
the public good is concerned) to put money in the
pockets of developers and politicians.

Please Read the information below and assist us by
writing the County board of commissioners and asking
them to vote for Denial of the proposed Scott King
Rezoning.

thanks,
Melissa Rooney

Fairfield INC rep
mmr121570 at yahoo.com

Reeves Young <rcyoung4 at verizon. net> wrote:

    Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:28:42 -0800 (PST)
    From: Reeves Young <rcyoung4 at verizon. net>
    Subject: Scott Mill Rezoning (Z05-35)
    To: Wendy Jacobs <geewen at nc.rr. com>

    THE PROJECT--Scott Mill is a proposed  mass graded
subdivision of single family homes, currently zoned
"rural" on Scott King Road in southern Durham County.
The entire 44 acre project is located within the
Northeast Creek Bottomland Natural Resource Inventory
Site, an area identified as home to rare plant and
animal species and is surrounded by Army Corps of
Engineers land and NC Gameland. The land is bisected
east to west by double cross country high voltage
power lines and diagonally by a natural gas line. The
proposed number of homes is 71 with a minimum lot size
of 9000 sq. ft. with the exception of 7 lots at 7500
sq. ft. Interior rear lots will be a minimum of 8
feet.

    THE HISTORY--Beginning in January, 2006, the
applicant, Bill Ripley (most notably of Indigo Corners
at Mt. Moriah Rd. and Chapel Hill Blvd.), has been
uncooperative with the neighbors as well as with the
Planning Commission who granted the maximum number of
deferrals before voting UNANIMOUSLY FOR DENIAL. As
instructed by the Board of County Commissioners in
June, 2006 (who expected to see major changes), we
negotiated in a third party, mediated setting and
thought we had secured a plan we could if not heartily
endorse, could live with. On August, 2006 the BOCC
deferred the vote to give the Planning Dept. a chance
to scrutinize the plan submitted shortly before the
meeting. Two days before the September, 2006 BOCC
meeting, Bill Ripley substituted the original,
virtually blank, etch-a-sketch plan for the one we
agreed upon at mediation. The committed elements did
not match the plan. The plan has been in the Planning
Department since September and has recently been sent
forward to the BOCC with the recommendation for
DENIAL. The denial is based in part on technical
inconsistencies that Bill Ripley has refused to
correct, but will have a huge, adverse impact on what
we agreed upon if approved.

    OUR OPPOSITION-- The Army Crops of Engineers
requested a 100 foot buffer adjacent to their land to
mitigate runoff in this EPA declared impaired
watershed and to protect homeowners from hunters. We
agreed to an undisturbed 70 foot tapering buffer on
the eastern boundary and the 6+ acres south of the
power lines as "undisturbed open space" with a 6 foot
wide permeable trail. The discussed exception would be
disturbance for a possible city/county mandated sewer
uplift pump station and infrastructure. The current
committed elements and development plan have
referenced these areas as "homeowners' common area",
(the original, unprotected designation) with
unspecified infrastructure allowed. A tot lot and/or
pocket park would be located in these areas adjacent
to gameland and in violation of our mediated
agreement. We agreed to a 15 foot minimum separation
between houses while the current plan reflects the
original 6 foot separation between houses. We agreed
to a landscaped berm along Scott King Road and now
have the original landscaped strip, with our request
for opacity figures and dimensions ignored. We asked
for restricted work hours for work creating off-site
noise and have a committed element that is written in
unenforceable language. They refused our request that
the project not be mass graded since the land has a
gentle topography. They have committed to grading on a
lot by lot basis on the untimbered eastern 7 +/- aces,
however we have little confidence that this will be
honored.

    HOW TO HELP--Please contact our County
Commissioners by phone or email in earnest, the week
of February 5th asking that they uphold the unanimous
vote of denial by the Planning Commission as well as
the recommendation for denial by the Planning Dept.
and vote NO to the proposed Scott Mill rezoning. Never
has development occurred within an inventory site!
This environmentally sensitive land needs a thoughtful
and careful approach, not  heavy handed, land gutting
development as usual. Please forward this to your
neighbors. We need help--Durham needs quality,
innovative development and developers willing to work
honestly and cooperatively with the community. Please
come to the County Commissioners meeting on the second
floor of the Old Courthouse at 200 E. Main St. on
February 12th at 7:00PM. 

    County Commissioner Contact Information:

    Ellen Reckhow
    ereckhow at aol. com or ereckhow at durhamcoun tync.gov
    Telephone: (919) 383-3883

    Becky Heron
    bmheron at nc.rr. com or bmheron at durhamcount ync.gov
    Telephone: (919) 489-4402

    Lewis Cheek
    lcheek at durhamcounty nc.gov
    Telephone: (919) 419-3303

    Phil Cousin
    prcousin at earthlink. net
    Telephone: (919) 683-1379 (w)
                     (919) 575-2257 (h)

    Michael Page
    mpage at durhamcountyn c.gov
    Telephone: (919) 361-2146 (h)
                     (919) 699-3299 (c)

    Thanks for your much needed help.

For more information feel free to contact the people
below, representing the local, southern Durham County
neighborhoods.

    Carol Young
    rcyoung4 at verizon. net
    Telephone: (919) 544-1956

    Liz Pullman
    pullmans at aol. com
    Telephone: (919) 544-1609

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