Matt Saldaña ·
26 Jun 2009, 12:46 PM ·
1 Comment
Updated: We’ve added additional quotations from Chuck Kitchen at the end of this post, at 12:57 p.m., and at 1:21p.m. added a reference to Southern Durham Development’s initial filing.
After more than 30 years as a law clerk and attorney with Durham and Alamance Counties, Durham County Attorney Chuck Kitchen has announced his retirement, effective November 30, 2009.
The official announcement, on June 22, came just two days before Kitchen was named in a lawsuit against the county, filed by Southern Durham Development, the company seeking to develop 164 acres of land near Jordan Lake into a proposed mega-development known as 751 Assemblage. The suit seeks compensatory damages for the county’s decision, upon Kitchen’s recommendation, to follow state law and subject a map change affecting the property to a public hearing process–and for that decision to be ruled null and void.
In an interview with the Indy, Kitchen said the lawsuit had nothing to do with his decision to retire, which he said he made in consultation with his wife several weeks prior to the suit.
“Them suing actually made it much harder,” he said. “That’s the kind of thing I like to do. But I’d already made the decision before then.”
Southern Durham Development began its civil action against the county on June 12, with a briefing that was expanded into a 40-page lawsuit on June 24.
Instead, Kitchen attributed his retirement to the “shrinking” difference between his annual pay, and the pension that all local government employees in North Carolina are entitled to, depending on years of service. The Indy has requested Kitchen’s salary information from Durham County.
“The difference between what you’re making, and what you’ll be making not working keeps shrinking,” he said. “It’s to the point where, with all the financial issues the county has, and no raises for next year, I looked at it and said it really doesn’t make financially sense anymore.”
In addition to claiming in the lawsuit that Kitchen’s advice had violated their constitutional property rights, Southern Durham Development accused Kitchen of being embroiled in a personal plot to undermine the project. The company has levied this charge in the past.
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Durham, Durham County, business, economy, environment 751 Assemblage, Chuck Kitchen, Durham County Commissioners, jordan lake, Mike Ruffin, Southern Durham Development
Matt Saldaña ·
5 Mar 2009, 7:03 PM ·
8 Comments
Because Durham County Attorney Chuck Kitchen has insisted on conducting a public hearing before the county changes its watershed and zoning maps, a lawyer representing Southern Durham Development has accused Kitchen of a conspiracy to thwart his client’s efforts to build a mega-development that, much like Jericho, would be located on the shores of a body of water named Jordan.
“We cannot understand why you have adopted such a strained reading of the ordinances in question unless you are trying to delay or derail our client’s pending rezoning request,” writes William Brian of K&L Gates, the law firm representing Southern Durham Development, in a letter dated March 4 (PDF, 272 KB) . “The only reason for you to do this would be to assist those who oppose the proposed project in a manner which is outside the scope of your official duties.”
One other reason, which Kitchen cited in his reply to an earlier letter from Brian, would be to comply with state open-meetings laws and the Unified Development Ordinance.
As if accusations of conspiracy weren’t enough, Brian makes a bizarre analogy that compares the Unified Development Ordinance to the Bible, and the county’s zoning atlas to illustrations in a children’s version of the Holy Writ.
No, we’re not kidding:
By your analysis, a “land use map” that incorrectly showed the boundaries of a district or overlay which was described by metes and bounds in the ordinance by which it was adopted would trump those metes and bounds, or at the very least would require an extensive public hearing process before it could be corrected. This is like saying that the illustrations in a children’s Bible trump the Scripture.
By Brian’s measure, the children’s illustrations, or U.S. Geological Survey maps, “incorrectly showed the boundaries” of Jordan Lake, until a 2006 decision, by former planning director Frank Duke (who by the way, helped author the analogous Holy Book), revealed the light by ushering through Hunter’s survey without any bothersome public hearings, let alone state or local review. No matter that Duke’s approval was later found by the N.C. Division of Water Quality to be in violation of the state’s administrative code. It was nothing less than the Word of God. And Chuck Kitchen is trying to challenge that–with pictures?
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Durham, Durham County, environment 751 Assemblage, Chuck Kitchen, Frank Duke, jordan lake, Neal Hunter, Southern Durham Development, William Brian
