[Durham INC] H-S on 751S

[Melissa Rooney]

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/17246340/article-751-South-opponents-file-appeal-notice?



751 South opponents file appeal notice
12 hrs ago | 519 views | 0  | 3  |  | 
By Ray Gronberg

gronberg at heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM – Opponents of the 751 South project, through their lawyers, have relayed word to court officials that they will appeal a judge’s ruling in favor of the controversial real estate development.

Attorney Dhamian Blue on Friday confirmed that he’d filed a one-page notice of appeal on behalf of the Chancellor’s Ridge Homeowners Association and other neighbors of the site who are challenging the 2010 County Commissioners vote that green-lighted the project.

Blue and his
 clients thus kicked off a bid to have the N.C. Court of Appeals overturn Superior Court Judge Henry Hight’s Jan. 13 ruling that upheld the zoning vote.

They contend the commissioners improperly disregarded a formal protest from neighbors that should have forced the project’s sponsor, Southern Durham Development. Inc., to secure votes from four of the five commissioners.

The rezoning passed in 2010 on a 3-2 vote, after City/County Planning Director Steve Medlin decided the petition was invalid.

His ruling, and Hight’s, turned on the question of whether the N.C. Department of Transportation on short notice could give up a road easement the developers donated to the agency in hopes of pushing the protestors far enough away from the site to disqualify their petition.

Medlin and Hight agreed the agency could not.

The review process for appeals court filings generally takes about a year, so the case will quite surely
 remain a work in process this spring as voters go to the polls to nominate this year’s slate of County Commissioners.

It will also play out as officials mull a request from the developers to change several parts of the 2010-approved plan. The county’s review of that request is already under way at the staff and advisory board level.

The developers’ lawyer, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, couldn’t be reached Friday for comment.

Opponents of the project, in addition to filing notice of appeal, were also quick to point out that Southern Durham Development had missed a Jan. 5 deadline for paying $142,793 in 2011 property taxes.

The company had paid its 2010 taxes on time, according to county records. 

The missed deadline “doesn’t bode well for the 751 folks having the funds to actually build the Jordan Lake mini-city they are proposing,” longtime project critic Melissa Rooney said.

The
 commissioners gave Southern Durham Development permission to build up to 1,300 homes and 600,000 square feet of commercial space on a 167-acre site at the intersection of N.C. 751 and Fayetteville Road.

Read more: The Herald-Sun - 751 South opponents file appeal notice 
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