Pittsboro Citizens' Group Files Second Lawsuit Against Chatham Park Plan

The citizen’s group Pittsboro Matters has filed a second lawsuit to challenge the recent master plan and rezoning for the 7,100-acre Chatham Park development.

Plaintiffs claim that the new master plan and rezoning passed by the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners on December 8 was prompted by an August lawsuit from Pittsboro Matters, in opposition to the original June 9 approval of the Chatham Park plan.

“Because of our previous suit,” said Jeffrey Starkweather, vice chair of Pittsboro Matters, “the Chatham Park Investors came back with a whole new master plan and rezoning – mainly because they were trying to get around what they discovered through our deposing of our Pittsboro Matters that they had deficiencies in their procedures they used to pass it back in June.”

Starkweather added that the new zoning plan meant that Pittsboro Matters needed to file a whole new lawsuit.

Speaking to WUNC, Tim Smith of Preston Development Company denied that the reopened process was connected to the lawsuit. Preston said that new rezoning was required because Preston and Chatham Park Investors wanted to add 45 acres to the project.

This time, Pittsboro Matters has signed on six more people as plaintiffs, in a concerted challenge to plans for a massive mixed-use development, adjacent to Jordan Lake and Downtown Pittsboro.

Starkweather said that all six of those property owners near the project site had provided evidence during depositions for the first lawsuit that they would suffer loss of value to their properties if the current Chatham Park plan went ahead.

The new lawsuit lists 10 claims, including that the master plan is inconsistent with Pittsboro’s land use plan; and that the public hearing process was not properly followed.

“And it’s unconstitutional, both in the state and the federal constitutions, because it’s a vague ordinance,” said Starkweather.

In a Dec. 23 news release, Pittsboro Matters Chair Amanda Robertson is quoted as saying that her group does not wish to stop Chatham Park.

Starkweather said the group objected to a lack of impact assessments for the plan regarding the environment, transportation, and affordable housing. He added that he also wants to see the developers donate land for schools; and that he hasn’t seen a marketing study that would convince him that the development would bring the promised wave of job opportunities.

He shared some of his ideas for what he called a “sustainable mixed-use community” in Chatham County.

“My conception of it would be what I call a ‘new urbanist’ green urban area near the town,” said Starkweather, “sort of like a conservation subdivision writ large. And you’d have these villages, but you’d locate people in a density high enough that you could have transit between the villages and the urban areas.”

Starkweather said he’d like to see 30 percent of the area preserved for natural conservation, and he’d like to see Chatham Park developers make such a promise.

Pittsboro Citizens’ Group Files Second Lawsuit Against Chatham Park Plan

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