The county commissioners’ public hearing on the 751 South rezoning, which was supposed to be held June 23, is being rescheduled yet again.

Attorney Patrick Byker, representing the project developer, requested a 30-day deferral on Friday. Under Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance, the request must be honored – as was project opponent Melissa Rooney’s request that deferred the hearing from its original date in May.

Since Rooney’s request, the hearing has been set for June 14, June 1 and June 23. Meantime, the date was apparently headed through a Board of Adjustment hearing in late July until Rooney dropped her appeal of the June 1 date after other opponents filed a protest petition which, if valid, would require a 4-1 commissioners vote to pass the rezoning.

At the same time, the Durham People’s Alliance – which opposes the project – arranged a protest relay run that is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

For the time being, that is. The run was scheduled to precede the June 23 hearing, and had already been rescheduled once due to the movable dates.

The People's Alliance relay starts at 4:30 p.m. at the Holton Career Resource Center at 401 N. Driver St. and finishes at 7:30 at 8606 Fayetteville St. Runners are going by way of the County Administrative Complex on Main Street, the American Tobacco Trail and Fayetteville Street.
 

The InterNeighborhood Council is weighing into the 751 South debate, circulating a resolution opposing the mixed-use subdivision near Jordan Lake among its member neighborhoods.

Neighborhood delegates will vote June 15 whether to adopt it or not.

The resolution, released Tuesday, objects to actions by the Board of County Commissioners. The board has, according to the resolution, "at every step, intervened in this matter to twist the process to assist the developers and to confound the neighborhood opponents, and has thereby considerably undermined the trust of Durham citizens and neighborhood organizations in the fairness of the government of Durham County generally and the ordinances governing development particularly."

The INC further "protests the unwarranted and unfair interference of the Board of County Commissioners in the procedures regulating this rezoning, and further that the InterNeighborhood Council, its government and its members, call upon the Board of County Commissioners to deny this rezoning petition in conformity with the recommendation of the Durham City-County Planning Commission because to do otherwise would reward the inappropriate and unfair conduct of this matter at the expense of the trust and welfare of the citizens of Durham."

South Durham resident Kim Preslar filed a protest petition against the 751 South rezoning today, even as the Durham County commissioners scheduled a closed meeting for tonight regarding Melissa Rooney's appeal of the rezoning's hearing date.

Rooney's appeal of the scheduled June 1 date would have delayed action until after a Board of Adjustment ruling in late July.

The petition carries 20 signatures, most from the Chancellor's Ridge subdivision just across N.C. 751 from the proposed 751 South site.

If valid, the petition would require four of the five commissioners to approve the rezoning, which is necessary for Southern Durham Development Inc. to proceed with its mixed-use project of up to 1,300 residences, 500,000 square feet of offices and 500,000 square feet of retail space.

In light of the 751 South hearing postponement, the People's Alliance is postponing its protest run until closer to the hearing date. The run had been planned for May 27, next Thursday, but a route and start time had not been announced.

In the meantime, the PA is still circulating a petition against rezoning for the controversial development, and selling "Vote No" T-shirts.

A town-sized subdivision project in southwest Durham has hit another delay.

Due to an appeal by project opponent Melissa Rooney, the county commissioners' scheduled hearing on a rezoning necessary for 751 South has been postponed until August at the earliest.

City/County Planning Director Steve Medlin informed commissioners by email this morning.

Rooney is appealing the commissioners' decision to defer the hearing from May 24 to June 1.  Her appeal, according to Medlin, requires a quasi-judicial hearing by the Durham Board of Adjustment. The next available spot on a BoA agenda is July 27.

The first county commissioners' meeting after the Board of Adjustment meeting is Aug. 9.

For more, see www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state.

The Durham People's Alliance is organizing a run to publicize its opposition to the 751 South (a.k.a. 751 Assemblage) subdivision, and selling T-shirts for the occasion.

Some details of the run -- like location, route and distance, aren't settled yet, but the date is tentatively set for May 27.

Discord is swelling again over 751 South, Southern Durham Development's proposed village near Jordan Lake.

On May 7, project opponent Melissa Rooney requested a deferral of the county commissioners' hearing on a rezoning for it. Since city/county ordinance requires such a request to be granted, at their meeting this week the commissioners switched it from the original May 24 date to June 14 at 4 p.m. -- sandwiched between a work session and a public hearing on next year's county budget.

Then, overnight, commissioners' Chairman Michael Page had a change of mind and, with the consent of commissioners Joe Bowser and Brenda Howerton, switched the date to June 1. Commissioner Becky Heron was not pleased.

"I did not agree," Heron wrote in an email to Bull's Eye. "This is unfair to the public and the commissioners to change the meeting when we had agreed on a date. Who does the chairman represent?"

Heron and Commissioner Ellen Reckhow had, the previous evening, argued against June 1 as it would leave Rooney little time to assemble her case against the project.

The ordinance only requires that a hearing be rescheduled within 30 days of the original date.

Meantime, the Durham People's Alliance, which has also opposed 751 South, has opened an online petition calling for its rejection both by the county commissioners and the City of Durham, which has an annexation request and water/sewer connections to approve or deny at some point.

Southern Durham's project has excited controversy, often heated, since the firm announced it in early 2008. So far, it has spawned three legal actions and months of rancorous discussion.

Environmentalists claim it would endanger water quality in already polluted Jordan Lake -- for which Durham taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup expenses. The developers claim their designs are environmentally benign and that the subdivision will create hundreds of new jobs.

On second thought, the Durham County commissioners have decided to hear the 751 South rezoning case at 7 p.m. June 1.

Their previous date, 4 p.m. June 14, sandwiched the 751 public hearing between a work session on next year's budget and the public hearing on that budget.

Originally, the 751 South case -- a rezoning to permit a 1,300-dwelling subdivision with up to 300,000 square feet each of office and retail space on N.C. 751 near Jordan Lake -- was on the commissioners' agenda for May 24.

However, subdivision opponent Melissa Rooney requested a deferral. County ordinance requires such a citizen's request in a rezoning case be granted.

The Durham County commissioners have rescheduled their public hearing on the 751 South rezoning to June 14 at 4 p.m.

It had been scheduled for the commissioners' regular meeting May 24, but had to be reset after rezoning opponent Melissa Rooney requested a deferral.

A mixed-use subdivision the size of a small town got thumbs down from the Durham Planning Commission Tuesday.

By an 11-1 vote, commissioners recommended denial for a rezoning Southern Durham Development requested for its proposed 751 South project near Jordan Lake.

“It's an exciting development,” said commissioner Barbara Beechwood. “[But] I don't like the site, it's a site with a lot of problems, it's a site that gives me heartburn.”

The plan for 751 South includes up to 1,300 apartments, condominiums and single-family residences; and up to 300,000 square feet each of office and commercial space on a 167-acre site on N.C. 751 just north of the Chatham County line.

Designer Dan Jewell described 751 South as “a community where people can dine, shop, work, work out … go to church, go to school, all within walking distance of their homes.”

Commissioners and citizens opposing the project were also concerned about a high-density development in a still-rural area.

“That area is a unique part of the county. I ask you to preserve it,” said Harry Bailes, who lives directly across N.C. 751 from the project site. He and his wife settled there for the rustic character, but if the project is built, he said, “We look right across from what I believe will  be a parking deck."

Commissioner Jackie Brown recalled that when a rezoning was approved for Southpoint shopping mall in 1999, then-City Manager Lamont Ewell promised it would lead to “no more commercial creep.”

“Well, guess what,” Brown said. “Here we are again. This is more. This is a village. You guys are trying to outdo Brier Creek with this one.”