Durham County commissioners are holding a special closed meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday about the Jordan Lake protest petition, County Commissioner Becky Heron said this afternoon.
A public meeting will follow, she said. The closed meeting also concerns Southern Durham Development's suit against the county over the lake's critical watershed boundary, according to a county release.
The City/County Planning Department completed a report on the petition and sent it to county officials Friday, Planning Director Steve Medlin said. Announcing the findings would be up to County Manager Mike Ruffin, he said.
"I have not read it thoroughly," said Ruffin. He said he had been occupied over the weekend with his son's wedding. "Honestly, I have not."
The protest petition was filed prior to the county commissioners' Oct. 12 vote on a rezoning and land-use plan amendment relocating the lake's critical-watershed boundary in southwestern Durham County. The Haw River Assembly and Southern Environmental Law Center filed it on behalf of 24 affected property owners.
If valid, the petition would have required a 4-1 "super majority" vote to approve the rezoning and amendment. However, the planning department ruled it invalid because the signatories represented less than the necessary 20 percent of affected acreage, and the changes passed 3-2.
After the vote, the SELC reviewed ownership records and claimed the planning department had been mistaken and that the changes failed to win approval.
In an email this morning to County Manager Mike Ruffin, Durham resident Steve Bocckino said Medlin's report "deemed valid" the petition.
"Now that the long-overdue verdict is widely known (and it is!), it is the appropriate time to formally announce the previous error," Bocckino said.
"I am not in a position where I can speak regarding any determination on the validity of the protest petition. Any release of information, if and when new information is available, is a [Board of County Commissioners] decision," Ruffin wrote in reply.
Heron and SELC attorney Kay Bond said they had heard Medlin found the petition valid, but "nothing official or concrete," Bond said.
"Nobody's told me anything different," Heron said.
County Attorney Lowell Siler has not yet responded to Bull's Eye's request for comment.
Comments
When rezoning is threatened, County erects the secrecy curtain
Mon, 11/16/2009 - 21:22 — mmr121570Once again, the county is keeping the public in the dark about goings-on we should know about. There is a deadline to appeal this to superior court, after all.
The county wasn't at all reluctant to inform the public (and the press) when they deemed the protest petition invalid, and when they repeatedly insisted on its invalidity over the past 40 days. But now, when there's information that doesn't benefit the rezoning case, they exercise the gag order until they can discuss it in closed session!
The BOCC should save some face 1) by openly informing the public of the planning department's decision ASAP, before their closed session meeting on Thursday; and 2) if Medlin ruled it valid, by applying the protest petition to the BOCC vote on Oct 12, thereby rendering insufficient the 3-5 vote approving the rezoning.
It is just plain wrong to make the citizens take the county to court to right this grievous wrong. And given Medlin's ruling, the county is very likely to lose the case and to have to pay the court and attorney costs of BOTH sides, not to mention possible punitive damages claimed. That means double costs to Durham taxpayers, no matter which side they're on.