[Durham INC] Jordan Lake Public Hearing deferred until Oct 12

[Melissa Rooney]

Please see the Herald Sun article below, if you haven't read it already. The Durham County Board of Commissioners' Public Hearing on the Jordan Lake rezoning has been postponed. It will no longer be on Sept 14 but will be on Oct 12 instead (7 PM, County Admin Bldg, downtown). [Oct 12 is the date given in the  planning department notification, dated Sept 3, sent by US post.]
 
And PLEASE mark Oct 12 in your calendars. We will need as many Durham citizens in attendance as possible. I'm bringing my kids -- it will be a good, true-life social studies lesson, and one that should be far from boring.
 
[The planning department has advised that the comprehensive plan amendment case, accompanying the aforementioned rezoning case, remains on the Sept 14 agenda, but that a BOCC 'straw vote' has determined that discussion will not be opened to the public, and the CP amendment will be deferred until Oct 12 as well, so that it can accompany the rezoning public hearing.]
 
The HS news article on the deferral is below.
--Melissa (Rooney)


Lake zoning hearing delayed






By Ray Gronberg

gronberg at heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- County officials will delay until October a planned hearing on a proposal to remove watershed-protection zoning near Jordan Lake, at the request of an opposing environmental group.

The hearing will be delayed until Oct. 12 or Oct. 26, with the precise date depending on a ruling from the county's lawyer, County Manager Mike Ruffin said.

Officials had intended to open the hearing Sept. 14. 

But leaders of the Haw River Assembly sought a postponement because they're "still seeking a lot of information we'd like to provide the County Commissioners," said Elaine Chiosso, the group's point person in pushing for stringent protection rules for Jordan Lake .

The proposed zoning change would open the way for a Raleigh company, Southern Durham Development Inc., to build a high-density residential, retail and office project along N.C. 751 next to the lake.

The issue turns mainly on developer-funded surveys of the lake that suggest its edge is farther to the west than local officials thought it was years ago when they imposed strict limits on hard-surface paving and development on the 165-acre project site.

Haw River Assembly supporters paid for a competing survey that suggests the lake's edge is far enough east that the limits should have covered some existing development in the N.C. 751 corridor.

The surveys from the two sides used different methods. The Durham Planning Commission has urged elected officials to shelve the rezoning and conduct their own survey.

The Haw Assembly has asked state regulators to say more about what they think are the proper methods to use in surve ying the lake boundary, "especially [for cases] when you're looking to change zoning on an impaired waterway that's feeding a drinking-water reservoir," Chiosso said.

Her mention of an impaired waterway was a reference to New Hope Creek, a Jordan Lake tributary that like most other streams in the area has pollution problems attributable to nearby urban development.

The postponement could have spillover effects on a lawsuit Southern Durham Development has filed against the county. The company opposes the upcoming zoning hearing, on the grounds that county land-use planners and state officials have already accepted with the developer-paid surveys.

The county's answer to the lawsuit was due near the end of August, but its lawyers got the response deadline pushed back to Sept. 24. An intervening vote by commissioners in favor of a rezoning could have mooted the case.

The Haw Assembly is trying to intervene in the lawsuit. A hearing on its motion is scheduled for Sept. 17, Chiosso said.

State regulators have sent mixed signals on the survey issue, accepting the developer-paid survey on one hand but indicating later they're open to considering others.

Meanwhile, arguments about the project continue locally. 

A supporter, County Commissioner Joe Bowser, confirmed that he participated in a recent forum for public-policy students at N.C. Central University. 

He said he urged them to watch the case as "an educational tool," and also told them the project could provide office and retail jobs students could take during and after their school days.

Citing a study by the project's backers, Bowser said he believes the project would create 2,000 to 3,000 jobs.

The commissioner said he was part of a panel that also included former Durham Planning Commission member Deborah Giles, who took the opposition side of the dispute.


Thanks for reading!
The Herald-Sun - Trusted & Essential 


      
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