gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648
DURHAM -- County Commissioners have instructed their lawyers to oppose an environmental group's attempts to intervene in a lawsuit filed against them by the would-be developer of a tract off N.C. 751 next to Jordan Lake.
Commissioners believe the Haw River Assembly isn't needed in the case because it "really represent[s] the same interests the commissioners are here to represent," County Attorney Lowell Siler said Monday, confirming the decision.
Lawyers for the county, the assembly and Southern Durham Development Inc. are due in court Thursday to argue about whether the environmental group should be allowed to participate in the case.
Southern Durham Development sued the county this summer in hopes of getting a judge to uphold a former city/county planning director's ruling and move a zoning buffer off its 165-acre property.
The buffer is supposed to restrict dense development and shield Jordan Lake -- a regional reservoir that supplies Cary regularly and Durham occasionally with drinking water -- from pollution.
County officials so far haven't filed a response to the lawsuit, and are in fact expected soon to approve a zoning change that would moot the case by moving the buffer as the developers want.
Haw River Assembly leaders have said they want a say in court to defend procedural safeguards that are supposed to protect the lake.
The dispute between the county and the developers has turned on whether former City/County Planning Director Frank Duke was right to change the buffer based on the findings of a developer-financed survey of the lake's boundary.
Also, the developers have faulted county leaders for insisting on holding a public hearing on the buffer change. They contend that local law allowed Duke and would allow his successor, Steve Medlin, to make the change on their own authority.
Siler's predecessor, former County Attorney Chuck Kitchen, insisted that a public hearing was a necessity under state law.
Commissioners are split on the project, with three appearing to favor it and two against. They removed Kitchen from office last month, by their own admission because of his role in the Jordan Lake dispute.
Siler said the commissioners were split 3-2 in opposition to the Haw River Assembly's intervention in the case. Commissioners Chairman Michael Page confirmed that.
Page said commissioners nonetheless "decided to move ahead with the advice of our attorneys at this point."
Neither he nor Siler identified the commissioners in the majority and minority factions. But it's known that commissioners Becky Heron and Ellen Reckhow are more critical of the project, while commissioners Joe Bowser, Brenda Howerton and Page are more receptive. Howerton sided with Heron and Reckhow only on the procedural question of whether to hold a zoning hearing.
The commissioners have been using outside counsel to represent them in the case.
County leaders had been scheduled to conduct the zoning hearing Monday night, but voted unanimously to postpone it until Oct. 12. The delay came at the request of the Haw River Assembly.
The group's leaders said earlier this month that they're still gathering information to present to the commissioners.
