THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100444
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A vote on a Senate bill to change the review procedure for coastal development permits was delayed Tuesday after some Ocracoke Island residents and environmental groups complained that it would restrict citizen appeals unfairly.
The state Senate delayed until today a vote on the bill because several of its members had questions about the effects of the proposal.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tony Rand, a Cumberland County Democrat, would require courts to refer contested cases back to the Coastal Resources Commission before a judge can rule on a substantive matter in a case.
Currently, a citizen can appeal a Division of Coastal Management decision to issue a permit for a development by asking the chairman of the Coastal Resources Commission for a hearing on the matter. If the chairman denies the hearing request, the citizen can appeal the decision to the courts.
In one recent court case involving a 350-foot extension to an Ocracoke pier, the state Court of Appeals not only ruled that then-commission Chairman James Harrington had erred in not granting a hearing on the matter - but also ruled that the permit be revoked.
Roger Schecter, director of the Division of Coastal Management, said the Coastal Resources Commission wanted the chance to rule on the merits of a permit before turning that decision over to the courts.
``This isn't new. But it is something that's very hard to rectify,'' Schecter said Tuesday. ``But this is always the heart of any issue the commission deals with: The issue of riparian rights and where they intersect with public rights.''
A lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, however, said the change could mean two court challenges for citizens appealing coastal permits.
The bill would require a citizen first to appeal a decision not to grant a hearing and then to appeal any subsequent commission decision on the permit, according to Lark Hayes, director of the Southern Environmental Law Center.
``We think that if the rule is changed, what the legislature is going to force the citizens into is two trips to Superior Court,'' Hayes said.
``That's just not a good use of our court time.''
Hayes said if they proposal had been in effect when the courts heard the Ocracoke case, the final decision ordering the pier extension dismantled probably would not have been overturned. by CNB