The Indy continues its analysis of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Southern Durham Development against the County in this week's issue. The most interesting bit of new news in Matt Saldaña's reporting: BOCC chair Michael Page's allegation that someone ordered planning director Steve Medlin to move back the critical watershed boundary on the 751 assemblage after Frank Duke changed it (although the state Division of Water Quality did later rule Duke did not have the authority to make the change in the first place -- a finding Page notes his disagreement with, though UNC's school of government and county attorney Chuck Kitchen also agreed with DWQ on the point.)
"I hope it will be proven in a court of law, so that these people who
have been whining and complaining will actually realize who's behind
all of this, that's costing the county thousands of dollars," Page said
of the lawsuit's allegations. "The truth is going to come out regarding
who instructed the planning director to move the maps back—and that's
who I want to see answer to the government in regards to all of this."
Read more on this over at the Indy. In other news:
- A Durham P.D. officer was shot overnight at a robbery-in-progress at an apartment complex on Shannon Rd. (ABC 11)
- Duke's public policy institute is as of yesterday officially Duke's tenth school -- the Sanford School of Public Policy, with ex-director Bruce Kuniholm taking the top decanal slot. (H-S)
- The half-cent local option sales tax for transit in the Triangle and Triad remains mired in the Senate over whether rural counties should have a quarter-cent option themselves -- and, increasingly it seems, over nervousness about taxes after a quarter-cent general-purpose sales tax increase has been floated as a budget-balancing method. (H-S)
- A move in the General Assembly to allow builders to defer property taxes on unsold new construction residences for up to three years -- a response to the housing crisis -- won't take effect until after FY2009-10, but would have cost Durham city and county $2.7m in tax revenue if it had. Legislators expect (hope?) the housing market to be in better shape by then. (H-S)
- Minnie Forte-Brown and Heidi Carter were re-appointed to their chair and vice-chair positions on the school board, with both signaling their and DPS' ongoing committment to school reform, which the H-S' Matt Milliken notes the board argued DPS was on the forefront of nationally. (H-S)
- The recent $400k grant from the EPA for brownfield sites evaluation will be used on four NECD sites -- Angier Ave., Plum St., the Sullivan St. flea market, and the old grocery store at Liberty/N. Alston, a community group learned Tuesday night. (N&O)
Comments