Almost a year after damage from heavy rain led to its evacuation, the Liberty Warehouse still has a hole in the roof and its owner is overdue on plans for making repairs.

Planning Director Steve Medlin issued a notice of violation to Greenfire Development after the company failed to submit architectural plans for dealing with "deficiencies" that led to the Liberty being declared in a state of "demolition by neglect."

The plans were due April 27, according to a schedule Greenfire submitted in February. Medlin said earlier this week that, if the plans were not submitted by today, he could issue a citation and begin levying punitive fines.

Medlin said Thursday he was to meet today with Greenfire's contractor.

Liberty Warehouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the last of more than a dozen tobacco auction houses that once operated in Durham's "Tobacco Row" just north of downtown.

In April 2011, the city condemned part of the building due to rotting in the roof and water damage. After a May 14 storm collapsed a section of roof, the entire building was condemned and the city began demolition-by-neglect proceedings. Owners of historic structures are required by Durham ordinance to keep them in sound condition.

Proceedings were postponed when Greenfire pledged to make repairs within six months, then put off another two months at the company's request. But city inspectors, touring the building Feb. 8, found exterior walls and foundations deteriorated, sagging floor and roof supports, ineffective waterproofing and numerous other faults contributing "to a hazardous or unsafe condition" in the Liberty's southern half.

Notified that it had been found guilty of demoliton by neglect, Greenfire submitted a schedule for making repairs by the end of October.

Planning Director Steve Medlin has declared Liberty Warehouse "in a condition of neglect" and ordered Greenfire Development to make repairs or face fines of $500 a day.

Medlin announced his decision today in a letter to Greenfire Managing Partner Paul Smith. It culminates a city investigation begun after the historic tobacco warehouse's roof collapsed in a heavy rainstorm last spring.

Medlin's letter requires Greenfire, which owns the building through its subsidiary Durham Liberty LLC, to develop a work plan and schedule in consultation with the City-County Planning Department by Feb. 29, and complete repairs by Oct. 15.

"Thank you, Jesus," said Debbie Pratt, a former Liberty tenant who was forced to quickly move a large art collection when the roof collapse led to the building's condemnation.

Smith was not immediately available for comment.

Fines begin if the company fails to comply with the deadlines. Noncompliance could also cost Greenfire the warehouse's "local historic landmark" designation and the associated property-tax benefit.

City inspectors, touring the building Feb. 8, found exterior walls and foundations deteriorated, sagging floor and roof supports, ineffective waterproofing and numerous other faults contributing "to a hazardous or unsafe condition."

The lawyers involved in the 751 South affair have decided among themselves that Superior Court is where their case belongs rather than at the Board of Adjustment.

So, the anticipated Dec. 6 Board of Adjustment showdown over an appeal of a planning department ruling that a protest petition against a rezoning for the proposed 751 South subdivision was invalid, after County Attorney Lowell Siler ruled that the state could not rescind an acceptance of property -- well, it's just not going to happen.

When the showdown shows up before a Superior Court Judge isn't set yet, and Durham Planning Director Steve Medlin said he has "no clue" when it might be.

"I probably won't know about it until after it's happened," he said.

DURHAM A Board of Adjustment hearing on the 751 South rezoning appeal has been scheduled for Dec. 6, City-County Planning Director Steve Medlin said today.

"I can't sit on it forever," he said.

The appeal was filed Sept. 7. (See link below.) Opponents of the contentious rezoning, which county commissioners approved in August, have appealed Medlin's ruling that their protest petition was invalid.

Medlin's ruling allowed the rezoning to pass with a 3-2 majority rather than the 4-1 minimum a valid petition would have required.

Still in question, though, is whether the appeal should properly be heard by the Board of Adjustment or in Superior Court.

"Worst case," Medlin said, "it goes to the Board of Adjustment and then goes to the courts."

If the rezoning approval stands, Southern Durham Development Inc. is clear to proceed with its annexation and water-sewer requests to the City of Durham for the 751 South mixed-use subdivision. The project includes up to 1,300 residences and 300,000 square feet of commercial space on a 167-acre site on N.C. 751 near the Chatham County line.

Documents:

The protest petition opposing a rezoning for the 751 South subdivision project is valid, City/County Planning Director Steve Medlin said this afternoon.

The valid ruling means that, for the rezoning to win approval, four of the five county commissioners must vote in favor of it.

"There is one caveat," Medlin said: No signatures may be added to the petition, but people who signed it can change their minds and have their signatures withdrawn. If enough do so, it would invalidate the petition.

The commissioners are scheduled to open a public hearing on the rezoning Wednesday morning. However, the board agreed in June to only open the hearing as a formality to comply with a legal deadline, and then continue it until their regular meeting July 26.

They settled on that plan when all five could not find an earlier date they would all be able to attend.

Southern Durham's project consists of up to 1,300 residences and up to 600,000 square feet of office and commercial space on a 167-acre tract in southwest Durham County near the Chatham County line and Jordan Lake.

City/County Planning Director Steve Medlin has ruled that the Haw River Assembly's protest petition regarding the Jordan Lake watershed case is valid.

Medlin's finding, included in a memo released tonight by County Manager Mike Ruffin, reverses an earlier decision made in advance of the county commissioners' Oct. 12 vote to change the critical watershed boundary in southwestern Durham County.

Commissioners approved the change 3 votes to 2. A valid protest petition, however, requires at least a 4 to 1 "super majority" to approve.

Durham County has not announced its position on the move in light of Medlin's ruling. Commissioners had scheduled a closed meeting on the petition, and on the related lawsuit against the county by Southern Durham Development, at 10 a.m. Thursday.

The Haw River Assembly, an environmental-protection group, filed the petition on behalf of 24 property owners affected by the change.

Ruffin released the memo upon the advice of County Attorney Lowell Siler in response to several public-records requests. The county has not released Medlin's earlier report, sent to Ruffin Nov. 13, which Siler has said contains information privileged under the law.

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.

The Southern Environmental Law Center hasn't decided what to do next about its twice-denied petition on the Jordan Lake watershed, SELC attorney Kay Bond said today.

 During Monday's meeting of the Durham County commissioners, County Attorney Lowell Siler said he expected a lawsuit to come over the City/County Planning Department's ruling that the petition is invalid.

"We have not given any indication to Mr. Siler that we would do that," Bond said.