The N.C. Department of Transportation has until tomorrow to respond to a letter (PDF) from a Durham developer asking it to rescind on action it took last week, rejecting rights to a piece of the developer’s land. This is according to a letter filed by Patrick Byker, attorney from firm K&L Gates, representing Southern Durham Development.
The firm is threatening to sue N.C. DOT if it doesn't accept Southern Durham Development's donation of an easement along N.C. 751. The letter insinuates the transportation department is to blame if Southern Durham Development doesn't get approval of its monumental and controversial development, 751 South.
Byker said he sent the letter July 30. Greer Beaty, spokeswoman for the N.C. DOT confirmed the department received the letter this week, and said Gibson was out of the office this week, and that the department would not be responding to the letter.
"We're not going to comment on an alleged, impending lawsuit," Beaty said late Thursday. "When a lawsuit is filed, the attorney general's office would be the ones to respond to that. But our position has not changed. We believe that politely removing ourselves from a local zoning discussion was the right thing to do."
The controversy is the latest twist in the ongoing debate over whether the county should allow developers to build 751 South, a complex of as many as 1,300 residences, a shopping center and offices for a 167-acre swath of southwestern Durham County. The land is mostly rural, and staunch opponents of the project say it will create traffic nightmares and that runoff from roadways and the development itself will further pollute the already contaminated Jordan Lake, which is a mile away.
Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the development at a meeting that begins 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9. The meeting had been continued from July 26 due specifically to disagreement over this land easement, which Southern Durham Development gave to the N.C. DOT on July 13.