Durham's City/County Planning Department should have a report on the Jordan Lake watershed protest petition done by the end of the day, but it doesn't appear it will be going public before next week.
County Manager Mike Ruffin, for whom the report is being done, is out of the office until Monday, according to his assistant Vera Alston.
"We, as a staff, are re-evaluating the information associated with the protest petition," Planning Director Steve Medlin told Bull's Eye on Thursday. "A report will be prepared and forwarded to the county manager.
"The county manager asked that I try to have that prepared and ready for him by the end of the week," Medlin said, "which is what we are definitely shooting for."
A link to the petition is below.
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 in on behalf of
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.
Last week, Medlin advised commissioners that the petition was still invalid due to problems with some signatures. The report in progress is expected to detail what those problems are.
At Monday night's commissioners' meeting, County Attorney Lowell Siler said he anticipated litigation over the petition. SELC attorney Kay Bond said Wednesday that the Center would make no decision on future action before it has details on the latest planning department ruling.
For information and documents related to the petition, see www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning.
Comments
'Push' is a very strong word here...
Sat, 11/14/2009 - 09:13 — mmr121570The attorney looking into the signatures was not at work on Thursday and County Attorney Lowell Siler was a no-show on Friday, calling in sick. Doesn't sound like much of a push to me...