December 13, 2023
County Commissioners (BOCC) gave us the middle finger last night. Twice. Despite a good turnout of opposition and lots of written input, 3 out of 4 of them (one of the five absent) voted to blindly follow the city council in approving the developers’ wish list, the SCAD amendments to the Uniform Development Ordinance (UDO). Had they voted “no,” SCAD would have been limited to inside the city limits. In addition, the BOCC voted unanimously to amend the conservation subdivision ordinance so that the actual conservation purposes listed in the current law have no meaning. The planning department asked for this amendment because they were afraid the court of appeals will rule in a few months that the planning department has been wrongly interpreting the conservation subdivision ordinance for years, allowing horific damage under the ironic label of “conservation subdivision” – many examples in southeast Durham. Here we have underway the Florida hedge fund owned, Mason Farms, at Roxboro and Preston Andrews which spurred the legal challenge asking the courts to interpret the ordinance. More on that in the future. We will soon experience the consequences of our being ignored by our only elected officials. Developers have been lusting after north Durham for years and now they have it. We must respond with our votes in the upcoming county election but there will be irreversible damage in the meantime.
Save Durham 