OK of controversial zoning map change now in doubt

By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- A county Planning Department reversal that will be discussed in closed session today has added uncertainty to a controversial proposed development near Jordan Lake.

In a redacted memo written Wednesday, city-county Planning Director Steve Medlin informed County Manager Mike Ruffin that a protest petition that was ruled invalid last month has now been deemed valid. The reversal calls into doubt the status of an Oct. 12 Board of County Commissioners vote to approve a controversial zoning map change.

That change may pave the way for a 165-acre mixed-use project situated near Jordan Lake. Proponents say the project will bring jobs and other benefits to the county, but opponents decry it as threatening an already polluted lake.

The switch, which had been rumored for days, left commissioners steaming.

"I'm disappointed with the Planning Department and its poor judgment in providing results to us that were incorrect," Commissioners Chairman Michael Page said. "Because we were acting on behalf of many citizens with that information, and that was not correct information."

Added Page: "I realize that mistakes do happen, but this is a very, very costly mistake."

Commissioner Becky Heron who, unlike Page, opposes the proposed development, was also unhappy.

"It's obvious that major errors were made in this, in the determination of the protest petition," Heron said. "It's something that in my 27 years as a county commissioner I don't remember ... happening."

Commissioners will gather at 10 a.m. today in the county administrative building 200 E. Main St. to discuss what to do next. The meeting will include a discussion that will be closed to protect confidential legal advice.

When the validity of the Planning Department assessment of the petition was first questioned, Ruffin and Medlin said that the only appeal of the Oct. 12 vote would be through the courts. Both declined to comment this week.

County Attorney Lowell Siler, to whom Ruffin referred questions, did not respond to requests for an interview.

When asked what he expected from today's meeting, Page replied: "I hope that we are able to take some kind of action to help the community understand where we're moving ... in regards to this report. I think the community should have an answer, but I want ... to give them an answer is correct."

Heron wants a candid discussion about what went wrong with the petition assessment. "And I just hope the county commissioners will see fit, if the citizens have questions, that they will be allowed to ask their questions and that they will be given an honest answer," she said. Heron added that she would supply her own answers if she felt officials were not being forthright.

Had the protest petition been ruled valid before the Oct. 12 vote, commissioners would have needed at least a 4-1 supermajority -- rather than the 3-2 majority that was recorded -- to alter the zoning map. The change increased the density of construction allowed on the site where Southern Durham Development plans to build its project, which is known as the 751 Assemblage.

Medlin's six-page memo was redacted due to personnel and trial preparation matters. Only about two and a half pages of it can be read, the rest is blanked out. The memo does not indicate why the initial assessment erroneously determined the petition to be invalid.

Representatives of the Haw River Assembly and the Southern Environmental Law Center asserted last month that the Planning Department had overlooked parcels on both sides of the area affected by the proposed zoning map change. They said the overlooked properties would have given the petitioners the requisite 20 percent of properties in the affected area that were needed to force a supermajority.