Demand Reasonable Growth in North Durham

2024 January Update

Quite a lot has happened through the end of 2023. In the update below we’ll recap some of the major highlights and once again ask for your help—not only with contributions but even more importantly with voter action.

1. Mason Farms development: some work has started at the Preston Andrews & US501 site. We’ll recap a bit and give you an update on the appeal status.

2. Regulatory Changes: regulatory actions on Conservation Subdivisions (and other developments) taken by the City of Durham and Durham County have changed the landscape of how developments are approved & controlled in Durham County and narrows the opportunity for citizen input.

3. “NoMEC”—Opposition to the proposed Moriah Energy Center: a proposed natural gas processing & storage center that has approval from the Person County BOC but faces stiff citizen opposition.

4. Action opportunities for citizens concerned about growth in Durham County

MASON FARMS SUBDIVISION, PRESTON ANDREWS RD & US501

Work has begun on the infrastructure (wells & septic systems) at Mason Farms. Our appeal of the conservation subdivision ordinance is still pending. We are undeterred by the County’s hurried amendments to force the ordinance to match what they want to do (see Reg Changes below). The owners of Mason Farms are not developers so they will soon be selling phases to builders. Our Preston Andrews Neighborhood Group is working diligently to influence the development for the best possible outcomes. We are using the strategies available to us: negotiations and public awareness of the inherent dangers of the subdivision, primarily traffic and risk of water depletion or contamination. We know that Mason Farms stands as a test case in north Durham where development has been restricted for years to support the use of private wells and septic systems, protect water quality, agriculture, natural habitat, and correspond to existing roads and infrastructure. Our neighborhood action group will continue to challenge the choices of the owners/investors of the Mason Farms subdivision to embrace responsible, safe provisions for the long-term health of those who buy homes there and of the larger community. In particular, this means including an entrance/exit from Mason Farms directly onto US501 at the Orange Factor Rd intersection already controlled with a traffic light.

We remain committed to having the Court of Appeals rule on the ordinance as written in 2008. Without meaningful conservation as described in the original ordinance, we risk an unlivable community and potentially dangerous outcomes. We want to discourage dense, isolated housing developments disconnected from the larger community, with little to no increases in transportation infrastructure or support services to help the new residents when they buy these homes. We also oppose the loss of protections for the environment that the new regulations permit. We are not done! We appreciate your help and your donations here. Please also look at the Action Opportunities section below and consider how you might get involved.

REGULATORY CHANGES

In December, the County Commissioners approved both the SCAD (“Simplified Code for Affordable Development”) amendments and changes to the Conservation Subdivision section of Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Proposed by development industry representatives, the SCAD change claim to make it simpler to develop “in-fill” projects within the City as well as many other industry sponsored changes. Critics claim that “affordable” in the title means “affordable for developers” not the development of affordable housing. Either way, these regulatory changes have been adopted and will make it easier for developers to build in both the city and county. Durham city/county has a surplus of thousands of housing units already approved and these changes will only make it easier for developers to add to that. There is NO increase in the requirement for developments to provide for truly affordable housing which is a critical need in both the city & county. Developers got a green light to build as much as can fit on any parcel of land they can buy. And they ARE BUYING—way over asking prices and inflating the market, further worsening the availability of affordable housing for ordinary citizens.

No consideration in the amendment approvals was given to needed infrastructure such as roads, police, fire safety, emergency services, or schools. Even after seeing the destruction of land adjoining critical watersheds in SE Durham developments, our elected representatives and the Planning staff seem to have NO SOLUTIONS or VISION to regain EFFECTIVE regulation over Durham’s growth.

The Conservation Subdivision regulation was effectively gutted to include nothing more than an open space provision. Gone are all the requirements such as preserving interconnected corridors & greenspaces within community; providing for contiguous greenspaces with adjacent properties/jurisdictions; providing public gather spaces, parks or community facilities; or providing for landscaped walking or bike paths. A conservation subdivision can now be a concentrated plot of residences with a nearby plot of open space virtually unamended for community use. This is a bitter outcome and one that will need to be addressed.

MORIAH ENERGY CENTER, PERSON COUNTY

Dominion Energy has proposed a 25-million-gallon Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) storage facility with future expansion capabilities in Rougemont, NC. Expansion is planned is another 25-million- gallon LNG storage facility on the same property. Source: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

In 2008, contaminated soil was discovered at the LNG plant (Piedmont Natural Gas) built in Huntersville, NC. The state of NC required them to remove 7,140 tons of soil containing benzene and trichloroethylene. Following up on this incident the ground water was tested and was deemed contaminated also. They were to design and implement a program to monitor contamination in and around the site and to develop a Remediation program to implement the approved remedial strategy. As of July, 2017 the data from the samples still showed detectable above NC 2L standards.

Source: NC Department of Environmental Quality

The Rougemont facility will process and house liquid natural gas with the accompanying risk of contamination to air, soil and water. The proposed owner, Dominion Energy, is teetering on bankruptcy, has conducted secret meetings with Person County Commissioners, and has a confidential agreement unavailable to the public with Duke Energy. We recommend you visits the NoMEC website (www.nomec.org) for additional information and to support the community organization opposing this development.

ACTION OPPORTUNITIES

• Of course, we would welcome your help with any donations to support our appeal asking the Court of appeal to rule on the Conservation Subdivision regulation as written in 2008.

• We also suggest that you check out the NoMEC site listed above and decide for yourselves whether this is something you want to live with. Risk and impact on insurance may extend in a radius of 25 miles which includes a significant portion of north Durham county.

• WRITE to elected leaders: If you agree that the decisions taken by the City of Durham and Durham County to ease development regulations (the SCAD amendments) and to gut the provisions of the Conservation Subdivision, then WRITE to city council members and the county commissioners and let them know. Letters are a strong influencer and are ONE of the ways we can all voice our concern about how our elected leaders are guarding our future. Don’t forget to mention that the members and leadership of the Planning Department appear to have ease for developers more on their minds than the needs of citizens throughout the county.

• VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS. This is more important than almost any other action that you can take. But voting in municipal elections is not something that most people do. Here are the statistics for this last municipal election in Durham County (Source: NC Board of Elections):

November 17, 2023

Precincts Reported: 100% (out of 58)

Ballots Cast: 18.97% (39,250 out of 206,929)

Note that less than 19% of registered voters voted in the municipal election! If you ever wondered why the elected leaders of the city and/or the county don’t reflect the values and direction that you would like them to have, just think that only 1 person out of every 5 is voting. A small increase in committed voters would make a HUGE change here.

• Ask the organizations you follow to help make your voting decisions to include questions for candidates on affordable housing regulations, support for easing building regulations—for builders—without demanding more for citizen protection and services.

• Consider RUNNING for election! Why not? Those of you who have strong opinions on how communities should be run and the importance of local democracy can have a HUGE impact on how we live out the values we talk about.

• Find resources you trust and gather information on WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING in the community. Here are some we can suggest:

o Preserve Rural Durham: Preserve Rural Durham

o NoMEC: www.nomec.org

o NC Newsline: Home | NC Newsline

• Lastly, TALK TO PEOPLE! Make these issues something that you talk about with your friends, neighbors, colleagues, at church, wherever you share time with your friends.

Previous Updates:

Here's the timeline for our appeal:

This week (Oct 1st) our lawyers will begin to compile the record for the Appeals Court (due November), next they will write and file our brief (due January). A hearing could be in April or May 2024 and the Court will hand down its decision in the months following. Our appeal is a powerful message of what Durham residents expect and demand from County government. The message is from YOU and we need YOU to help us through to the end! Sustaining this legal challenge will bring accountability to the TRUE PURPOSE of conservation subdivisions as proposed developments continue to come up for approval. Our appeal draws a straight line to the devastating impact suffered in southeast Durham and loudly announces that “Durham doesn’t want a conservation subdivision built that way to look like that!” Winning our appeal will codify our demands that Durham be carefully built to protect agriculture, tree canopy, history, and community.

On Monday (24 July), Special Superior Court Judge Beecher Gray did not hold in our favor.

The judge was careful, thoughtful, and acknowledged that our case was difficult and important. He made clear he preferred a jury of Durham residents to decide the case. Near the end, Judge Gray asked our lawyers to say, in their opinion, what was the most disturbing point of this case and our lawyers spoke to the “bigger picture” of Durham development and the reality of disappearing rural land without a process to protect it. Our legal counsel were flawless from start to finish and they presented the case fully. After 2+ hours of argument and deliberations by the judge, he denied our motion for summary judgment and held in favor of the County.

What’s next? Developers will continue their current development practices as usual. And the City and County will evaluate applications for conservation subdivisions as before. We learned on Monday that 15 conservation subdivisions have been approved by Durham City/County – and not a single one met all 12 standards.

What’s the bigger picture? While ancient forests burn, temperatures soar, oceans boil, and clean water disappears, we cannot discount or disregard the good we can do. There are ways citizens can make their preferences about development known. For our part, we intend to appeal this decision and will file an appeal within the next few days. Please consider continuing your support to help carry us through the appeal. We will file updates & progress reports from time to time to keep you up to date on what’s happening.

Our neighborhood team, and Preserve Rural Durham, will continue to mobilize and galvanize residents to protect Durham residents, forests, water, wetlands, and streams. These efforts are having impact – both seen and as yet unseen – and our communities and open lands can still be preserved. We won’t give up.

Stay tuned and stay strong.

Fundraising status update

With the receipt of a couple of out-sized gifts, our recent fundraiser donations have covered legal fees through June 2023. Our lawsuit, begun in late 2022, is being expertly and efficiently handled by Attorneys TC Morphis and Brady Herman of the Brough Law Firm in Chapel Hill. TC and Brady have deep experience in land use law, with significant successes, and they have generously discounted their fees in this matter. Still, their representation to date has been at a cost of ~$20,000 and we have the final hurdle in our case yet to clear. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who has donated toward our effort to enforce Durham’s development ordinance and RESTRAIN THE ABUSES OF THE SO-CALLED “CONSERVATION SUBDIVISION”. Our choice to litigate the approval of a community wastewater system at Mason Farms was a choice to protect every acre in Durham County. Now we have chosen to appeal last Monday's ruling to deny our request for a summary judgment.

We have changed the narrative and encouraged and empowered Durham residents, elected officials, and influencers to demand and expect Durham’s growth to be reasonable and responsible. With the setback on Monday, we have chosen to appeal. Our legal fees will continue through the hearing and final filings in our case and the appeal, and to cover them we will continue our GoFundMe page here. There is still time and need for additional donations!

GOOD ADVICE: If you live close to a proposed or emerging subdivision – such as Mason Farms on Preston Andrews Road – be sure your private well has been recently inspected and tested. Confirming that your well is in good working order, without cracks or other damage, and pumping uncontaminated water will be key evidence should nearby development impact your well or underground water sources.

Want to ask a question? Scroll down to the bottom of this blog and click on the Comment button. One of us will try to get back to you as quickly as possible.

WHAT IS MASON FARMS? Approved to permit a community wastewater treatment system in November 2022, Mason Farms is NOT the Wet Rock subdivision originally proposed. Don’t let the Wet Rock signs fool you. Mason Farms is a 141-home subdivision planned by an investment firm to recover Wet Rock’s losses. There will be no farm, no agriculture, no walking trails, and no access to Hwy501 that were planned for Wet Rock. Instead, 141 homes will be clustered at the corner of Preston Andrews Road, with only four wells and one gigantic community wastewater system to serve the entire subdivision. All traffic (an estimated 1400 trips per day) will enter and exit onto Preston Andrews a mere few yards from the Hwy 501 intersection. Mason Farms is not the kind of development we want in North Durham. If it is allowed to go forward, Mason Farms opens the floodgates to unrestrained development of similar or larger subdivisions on any available open land in north Durham County. Hunting, farming, and enjoying our woods and forests will slowly become only fond memories.

We would like to thank all those who have already helped support our effort to appeal the Mason Farms development approval. Our group's key message is simple: The damage in SE Durham will be North Durham’s reality unless we end the abuse of conservation subdivision approval. Durham’s ordinance allowing “conservation subdivisions” has been over-used and abused to approve developments that are devasting soil, water, tree cover, and neighborhoods. Every corner of the county will be affected if development continues unregulated.