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.

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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.

The Jordan Lake protest petition is going to court. Raleigh attorney Jim Conner filed a complaint today in Durham Superior Court, contending the county commissioners' Oct. 12 rezoning vote failed to move a watershed boundary line.

The complaint asks for a declaratory judgment and injuction "to have the vote that was taken on the rezoning be declared a vote against the rezoning," Conner said.

If successful, the complaint would negate the commissioners' 3-2 vote in favor of the rezoning because the presence of a protest petition required a 4-1 "super majority" for the rezoning to be approved.

Defeat for the rezoning would block a planned subdivision from being built between N.C. 751 and Jordan Lake in southwestern Durham County. It would mean

Conner is representing three individuals and the Kendrick Estates Development Corp. The Haw River Assembly, which with the Southern Environmental Law Center filed the protest petition on behalf of more than 20 affected property owners, is not party to the suit, said SELC spokeswoman Kathleen Sullivan.

Conner said he expected the court to rule on the complaint "in the next few months."

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.