[Durham INC] The problem: No respect (Herald-Sun Editorial)

[John Schelp]

The problem: No respect
Herald-Sun Editorial, 15 April 2010

The Durham Planning Commission's recommendations may be about serious matters, backed by local, state and federal laws, but they are as binding -- and taken about as seriously -- as a Dear Abby column.

This was clear in the recent appointment process for both the Planning and Workforce Development boards, when the county Board of Commissioners chose appointees based on a number of factors -- giving aspiring civic leaders a chance to serve on a prominent board, increasing the racial diversity of the Planning Board -- but did not interview the candidates in any organized way or seriously discuss their credentials or expertise.

Commissioners, angry over the way county staff dealt with candidates for the Workforce Development Board, have said they might want to do exactly that kind of interview in the future.

We're all for it, and any other measures that would give county and city leaders more confidence in the boards they appoint.

That confidence is completely missing right now.

As Planning Commission member Jarrod Edens (a city delegate) noted on Tuesday, "It doesn't matter whether we're recommending approval or denial to the elected officials who will be making the decision."

If that's true, and if commissioners continue their trend of ignoring the planning board and greenlighting development, then we might as well vacate the boards and save everyone some time.

On Tuesday, the Planning Commission voted 11-1 against a plan to build 1,300 homes and 600,000 square feet of commercial space near the Chatham County line on N.C. Highway 751.

The planning board opposed it for a lot of reasons: There's no transit plan for the area, the developer won't be the one paying for road improvements or extended bus service, and the development is near the edge of the Jordan Lake watershed, which is a political hot potato with Raleigh.

Those are important questions, but we're more troubled by the fact that the developers, perhaps taking their cue from the county commissioners, flatly ignored the Planning Commission's requests for changes to the plan.

The board asked Southern Durham Development Inc. to honor the pollution control rules for Jordan Lake that are expected to be hammered out by 2011. Instead, SDD will try to slip under the wire for permits under the present, looser regulations.

SDD also scoffed at a planning board request to cap its largest retail space at 75,000 square feet (a large supermarket is about 40,000; a home improvement store is about 125,000).

These are changes that are in the community's interest. If the planning board had any teeth or the backing of the city or county leaders, perhaps its suggestions would be taken more seriously.

Instead, the Durham Planning Commission is that it is treated as an unserious body by the politicians who appoint its members. It's time for that to stop.