At the close of Tuesday night’s meeting, the mayor, five town commissioners, Town Manager Mark Williams, and attorney Eric Vernon went into a closed session to discuss the three suits over the Tryon rezoning.
Yes, three. Frank and Olga McCoy with their attorney, Nathaniel C. Parker of Wake Forest, have filed three suits, two in September and one last week.
One was heard last Thursday by Wake County Superior Court Judge Hardin, who listened to the arguments from the town and the petitioners. The town has offered motions to dismiss the case and town attorney Tobias Hampson with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton said, “Once Judge Hardin rules on the Motions to Dismiss, we will know whether the case will be heard on the Petitioners’ substantive arguments in the certiorari petition or not.”
The McCoys own property just south of the 131.5 acres rezoned for the Tryon subdivision in July. He spoke against the rezoning in the June public hearing.
Part of the case the McCoys are pursuing says that the couple might be required to provide connections to some small tracts in the rezoned land that are cut off from other access by wetlands. They might thereby lose some lots if and when they develop, reducing the value of their property.
The McCoys are also questioning the timing of the approval, the lack of some statements and other aspects of the decision.
Hampson said a separate “declaratory judgment action, which also challenges the conditional district zoning and master plan . . . remains pending and the litigation continues.”
The third lawsuit claims there were violations of the open meetings law. Hampson said the town has not yet filed its answer in that case.
The rezoning was controversial. A number of neighbors in addition to Frank McCoy questioned the impact the 279 single-family homes and 136 townhouses would have on the headwaters of Austin Creek, which flows into Smith Creek and later the Neuse River.
At least two neighbors across Wait Avenue (N.C. 98) refused to give the developer, Tryon Wake Forest LLC from Knightdale, easements for a sewer line to serve the southern portion of the project. There will be sewer service through the adjoining Kings Glen subdivision for the first phase. The planning board and town board were told the City of Raleigh would not use eminent domain “or anything else” to help the developer obtain the sewer service needed for phases four through seven.
Another sticking point was the grading of about eight acres that are in the Smith Creek Reservoir watershed to change the runoff into the development, not the watershed.
The planning board voted four to three to approve the subdivision plan. The plan had changed by the time it got to the town board in July; eleven single-family lots had been deleted, the remaining lots were wider, open space had been slightly increased, and overall density had been slightly decreased.
Commissioner Margaret Stinnett voted no in the four to one vote to approve. She was opposed because the approval would give the City of Raleigh the authority to use condemnation or purchase to provide sewer for the final development phases.
