Old School Group Asks Judge to Overturn Zoning Decision

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

September 21, 2012

Following a contentious public hearing August 23, Cape Charles Town Council voted both to rezone the old school property adjoining Central Park and to issue a conditional use permit allowing the school to be converted to an apartment building in a single family residential area.

The contention has not gone away. Now the issue has landed in Northampton Circuit Court, where Old School Cape Charles LLC and two property owners are asking the judge to declare the Town’s zoning and conditional use ordinances illegal.

This is the second lawsuit filed by Old School Cape Charles. On July 18, the group filed suit to block the sale of the old school to a developer, Echelon Resources, Inc.

Old School Cape Charles maintains that Town Council’s decision to sell the school property without requesting bids, and refusal to consider a competing offer from Old School Cape Charles, was both arbitrary and illegal.

The latest lawsuit, filed September 20, also asks relief for two adjoining property owners, Laura Hickman McSpedden and John L. Hickman, who claim the Town failed to notify them of the public hearing as required by law.

Echelon Resources is also named in the suit as a “party in interest” that is the beneficiary of the zoning and conditional use ordinances.

The legal appeal lists six additional reasons why the Town ordinances should be overturned:

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1. The zoning and conditional use applications were “defective,” which was pointed out at the public hearing but ignored by Town Council.

2. The ordinances violate zoning requirements and the Town Comprehensive Plan.

3. The special ordinances constitute unlawful “contract zoning.”

4. The ordinance votes were “arbitrary and capricious,” because the Town refused to consider a “superior offer”; the Historic District Review Board disapproved of the zoning and apartment project; the ordinance votes were taken without any time for meaningful consideration following the public hearing; and “numerous false justifications” were made by Town Council and staff, including a claim that there was no need for more municipal space and no money to fund any. But in fact, the suit continues, the Town subsequently agreed to purchase and renovate the former Bank of America building. In addition, the Town “violated its legal duties to maintain” the old school even as it now justifies the school’s disrepair as reason for divesting it.

5. The ordinance votes are in support of a contract with “intentional economic discrimination” against racial and ethnic minorities.

6. The votes violate equal protection and due process rights.

The September 20 appeal made be read here.

DISCLOSURE: Cape Charles Wave staff members are also members of Old School Cape Charles. Every effort has been made to ensure that the above report accurately represents the facts of the case, without prejudice to any party.