[Durham INC] Jordan Lake Survey Saga -- updates in the press

[Melissa Rooney]

FYI -- please see the news links and the Herald Sun article (regarding the BOCC's next move on the Jordan Lake Survey Saga) below... Melissa (Rooney)


http://durham.mync.com/site/durham/news/story/30305/commissioners-want-other-counties-advice-on-jordan-lake-controversy/


				
				
				
		

		
		
		
			
		
		
			Commissioners carry over Jordan Lake debate
			
		
		
		
			
		
	
		

		
		
		
			BY MATTHEW E. MILLIKEN : 
			
		
			The Herald-Sun

			
		
		
			
			mmilliken at heraldsun.com

			
		
			
			
		
			Mar 24, 2009
			
		
		
		


		
		 
		 
		
		
		


		
		
		
			
			
		
		
			
				
					
			 
		
		DURHAM -- Durham's Board of County Commissioners held a contentious discussion Monday over a proposed change to the critical and protected areas around Jordan Lake.     


The ultimate consensus was that the board will take up the matter again
on April 13 at a session that will feature public comment and,
potentially, a decisive vote. In the interim, county administrators
will consult with the Institute of Government, planners in other
counties and perhaps even an outside attorney to seek guidance on the
situation. 


At stake is whether and how to amend a variety of zoning and planning
documents showing the boundaries of Jordan Lake and, by extension, its
one-mile critical and five-mile protected watershed areas. The decision
will determine whether Southern Durham Development, which owns 164
acres about a mile from the lake, can be allowed to proceed with a large mixed-used development.     


It will also determine, critics of making the change say, whether the quality of drinking water in the lake will be imperiled.     


Frank Duke, the former city-county planning director,
updated the maps in 2006 using information provided by a
developer-funded survey. County Attorney Chuck Kitchen holds that Duke
did not have the authority to make the change and that a more elaborate
process involving public hearings must be followed. Southern Durham
Development disagrees. 


The matter will proceed along at least one other front. George Brine, chairman of Durham's Planning Commission, announced Monday that he has formally asked the Environmental Management Commission to change the state's ruling on the acceptability of the 2006 and 2008 private surveys underlying the proposed map change.     


Southern Durham environmental activist Melissa Rooney and Elaine
Chiosso of the Haw River Assembly environmental group joined Brine in
signing the petition. Its exact text was not available Monday. 


Although Monday's session was supposed to be educational, commissioners
staked out the same positions they had on March 5. Chairman Michael
Page and Commissioner Joe Bowser favor adjusting the map to reflect the
private surveys, Commissioners Becky Heron and Ellen Reckhow want an
independent survey of the lake and Commissioner Brenda Howerton has yet
to state a position publicly. 


Bowser also sided with Southern Durham Development in calling for the
changes to be made solely in the discretion of the planning director,
who is now Steve Medlin. Heron and Reckhow said Kitchen is correct in
calling for the public hearings and formal process. 


Kitchen was asked whether the county is obligated to accept the map changes approved by the state Division of Water Quality
last month, assuming the petition does not overturn that approval.
Kitchen suggested that the county's safest option was to implement
adjustments based on the private surveys. 


On Monday, as on March 5, Bowser and Reckhow had heated exchanges -- a
break from the board's collegial air over the past four months. 
		
		

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http://www.bullcityrising.com/2009/03/durham-dems-weigh-in-on-jordan-lake-private-survey.html



      
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