DURHAM -- A judge ruled Thursday that the Haw River Assembly may intervene in the legal battle between Durham County and developers seeking to build a small village on 164 acres near Jordan Lake.
Superior Court Judge Howard Manning allowed the intervention but limited it to "the critical question of the legality of the actions of the county."
Manning also halted all other action in the case brought against the county by Southern Durham Development pending the outcome of a public hearing, currently set for Oct. 12.
On that date, the Durham County Board of Commissioners plans to consider whether to move the watershed boundary between N.C. 751 and Orange County.
Jordan Lake, the manmade reservoir south of Chapel Hill and Durham, is protected by a one-mile critical area boundary where development is restricted to low density. On June 24, Southern Durham Development sued over Durham County's decision to send the proposed boundary change to public hearings. The suit contends the boundary was properly set in 2006 by then-Durham Planning Director Frank Duke.
Duke's action placed a tract where the developers want to build outside the critical area. In 2008, then-County Attorney Chuck Kitchen found Duke had exceeded his authority and that changing the boundary required state approval and a review process laid out in Durham's development rules.
Earlier this week, the commissioners voted to oppose the assembly's intervention. The nonprofit citizens group was founded in 1982 and works to restore and protect the Haw River and Jordan Lake. It opposes the boundary change.
Representing the county, Bradley Risinger argued Thursday that the assembly's voice would be heard during the public hearing process and that the county adequately represents the group's interests, along with those of all Durham citizens.
"We honor their participation in the public process, but the lawsuit is about whether the county has followed the correct process," Risinger told the judge
Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Kay Bond, however, successfully argued that the environmental group's priority is the health of Jordan Lake and that the county and the assembly's interests may conflict as the case moves forward.
