The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995          TAG: 9509130441
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines

DEVELOPER'S PANEL MEMBERSHIP MAY BE CHALLENGED BY GROUP

A coastal conservation group may mount a legal challenge against Outer Banks developer J. Timothy Thornton's continued membership on the state Coastal Resources Commission.

``We are assessing what we should do at this particular point, and we haven't made a final decision yet,'' said Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation. ``We should decide in the next week or so.''

Thornton, who has moved out of the state, is at the center of a dispute over his eligibility to serve on the panel.

Members of the coastal federation and other environmentalists say decisions made by the Coastal Resources Commission could be questioned if Thornton continues to serve on the panel. But the state attorney general's office has said that although Thornton will not be eligible for reappointment to the panel when his term expires in June 1996, his continued service does not violate state laws.

Thornton said on Monday that he told Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. more than a year ago about his change in residency. He said he has no plans to resign from the panel.

``Some people have been trying to get rid of me for eight years,'' he said. ``And I wrote the governor because I know there might be an occasion when this would be questioned.''

The Coastal Resources Commission is the 15-member panel that oversees development and environmental protection along the state's coast.

Thornton, who has an office and a home in Elizabeth City, was appointed to the panel nearly eight years ago by Gov. James G. Martin.

But he has lived in Richmond, Va., since December 1994.

State statutes stipulate that only two members serving on the Coastal Resources Commission can live outside the 20-county coastal area, but the 1974 law creating the panel does not require members to live in North Carolina.

Thornton's move to Virginia brought to three the members of the panel living outside the coastal region.

After Thornton wrote Hunt to tell him that he had moved, Senate leader Marc Basnight received an opinion from the attorney general's office indicating that Thornton can continue to serve on the panel until his term expires.

``It is the opinion of this office that a properly appointed member of the Commission may continue to serve the remainder of his term after changing residence even though the change would cause the full Commission's membership to be inconsistent with the residency qualifications,'' the attorney general's office wrote last Dec. 19.

But Miller and Derb Carter, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, dispute that opinion.

A successful challenge to Thornton could jeopardize any decisions made by the commission while he is a member, Carter said. by CNB