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Forest Hills, Summit settle lawsuit through mediation
By Amy Hall and Justin Goble
After more than two years of legal wrangling, Forest Hills officials have dropped an appeal and reached an agreement with the developers of Summit apartments.
The agreement was brokered during a March 2 mediation session, according to town attorney David Moore.
Forest Hills board members discussed the mediation talks during their March 5 regular meeting.
According to Moore, the agreement effectively ends the town’s legal challenge to Summit’s planned development of the land it owns within Forest Hills’extra-territorial jurisdiction.
“The litigation with the Summit has resolved itself,” said Moore. “There will be building on Summit’s contended tract, but the number of beds will be capped.”
Moore said the town and the developers had come to an agreement that new beds on Summit’s contended tract will be limited to 425.
“We don’t know how many buildings that will be – this agreement is unusual in that it is based on concepts instead of hard figures,” Moore said.
As part of the agreement, Moore said the developers would help the town prepare for the influx of traffic that will come as students occupy Summit’s new buildings.
“Summit agreed to pay some money to the town to help work on the entrance (off N.C. 107),” Moore said. “They also agreed to undertake traffic control studies.
“(Forest Hills) is charged with safeguarding the residents,” Moore said. “That’s really what the negotiations boiled down to. They just want to protect things like accessibility and stop things like noise and light pollution. They’re also trying to establish a better line of communication in case other problems arise.”
This mediation agreement follows months of legal battles between the two parties.
Mediation talks came after Superior Court Judge Marlene Hyatt found Jan. 17 that town officials overstepped their bounds in denying Summit’s 2004 request to build additional housing units on its 14.7-acre tract.
After the decision, town officials decided to move forward with an appeal. However, Summit representatives requested a mediated settlement.
Judge Hyatt’s ruling in the Summit case affirmed an earlier ruling by Superior Court Judge Ronald Payne, who ruled in March 2005 the town’s actions were “arbitrary, capricious and oppressive,” showed “manifest abuse of authority” and displayed “reckless disregard of the facts.”
Hyatt said in her decision that Summit’s whole tract is “vested with rights to construct its Summit at Cullowhee multi-unit housing without regard to the ETJ zoning ordinance of the village of Forest Hills,and without the necessity of applying to the village of Forest Hills for any zoning certificate.”
Mayor Jim Davis and town board member Joe Rossano represented the town in negotiations with Summit developers.
In other business March 5:
--Forest Hills economic development task force representative Gene Tweedy presented town officials with a draft copy of the Economic Development Commission’s new bylaws.
Tweedy requested that the board generate a list of suggestions and changes to the by-laws for the task force to address during its Wednesday, March 28, session.
Davis said that the board would submit a list to the EDC.
--The board voted to explore the possibility of building a Forest Hills town hall.
Davis told the board that he and the owners of the University Inn had spoken about building a town hall on one of two adjacent lots.
“The University Inn has offered to build a town hall,” said Davis. “They would build the building, and we would make payments to them. They’re trying to generate community involvement.”
Rossano felt that this was an idea worth exploring.
“It would be nice to have a town hall,” said Rossano. “There is a lot of business conducted outside of meetings, and it would be helpful and convenient to have a place where everything could be consolidated.”
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