New law's future uncertain

Commissioner-elect Christie Adams, on Monday night, used a tactic employed by incoming members of the Wake County Board of Education, in an effort to delay approval of the town's new land development ordinance.

That ordinance, called the UDO, or Unified Development Ordinance, brings together all the town's development rules under one cover. The resulting document is about 400 pages and contains a number of changes in the way the town currently allows development to take place.

The document was crafted as the result of two years worth of work by a committee that included residents, builders, developers, members of the planning board and two members of the town board. The UDO gives town staff rules to follow to employ the guidelines offered in the town's comprehensive plan.

Like her counterparts with the Wake County school board, Adams proposed that commissioners delay action on the item until it could be strengthened. The incoming school board members asked the current board to delay work on a controversial new high school proposed in the Rolesville area.

"We should be addressing as many problems as we can before they arise as opposed to continuing to change the document as these problems come up," Adams said of the UDO.

Commissioners chose to move forward approval with consideration of the item anyway.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the ordinance. Outgoing commissioners Ronald Thompson, Bill Connolly and Buddy Scarboro voted in favor of the new law.

But wait, there's more.

Because the vote would mean changing an ordinance, the town's rules require at least 75 percent, or four of the five commissioners, had to vote in favor of the change in order to adopt it.

Commissioners Sid Baynes and Carol Hinnant voted against the ordinance which means, under the town's own rules, the matter has to be voted on again. In the second vote it can pass with a simple 3-2 majority. Hinnant was one of the commissioners who sat in on the meetings to draft the ordinance.

The second vote will likely take place Nov. 23 - the last official meeting for Connolly, Thompson and Scarboro.

Baynes recognized that fact, but said the new board can act on the measure too.

"I realize there are enough votes to get it passed this month, but there will also be the votes available in the future to straighten it out, or repeal it or whatever and get it like it ought to be," Baynes said.