GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

S	1 

SENATE BILL 684

Short Title:  Durham/City Development Review Bd.	(Local)

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Sponsors: Senators Lucas and Gulley.

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Referred to:  State Government, Local Government, and Personnel.

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April 3, 1997

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT AMENDING THE DURHAM CITY CHARTER TO RENAME THE SUBDIVISION REVIEW BOARD AND INCREASING THE NUMBER OF PERSONS WHO MAY SERVE ON THAT BOARD.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Subsection (3) of Section 97 of the Charter of the City of Durham, being Chapter 671 of the 1975 Session Laws, reads as rewritten:
"(3)	The City Council may provide for the appointment of a board to be known as a Development Review Board consisting of four or more members who shall serve without pay as such members, each of whom shall be appointed by the Council for a term of years or for a term at the will of the Council, as may be determined by the Council; in the event the Council appoints such Board for a term of years, the term of the office of each member shall be three years.  The Development Review Board shall hear and decide appeals from and review any order, requirement, decision or determination made by any administrative official charged with the enforcement of any ordinance adopted pursuant to this section.  It shall also hear and decide all matters referred to in or upon which it is required to pass under any such ordinance.  The affirmative vote of a majority of members of the Board shall be necessary to reverse any order, requirement, decision or determination of any administrative official, or to decide in favor of the applicant any matter upon which it is required to pass under any such ordinance or to effect any variation in any of the provisions of such ordinance.  Every decision of such Board shall, however, be subject to review by proceedings in the nature of certiorari.  Such appeal may be taken by any person aggrieved or by an officer, department, board or bureau of the City.  Such appeal shall be taken within such time as shall be prescribed by the Development Review Board by general rule, by filing with the officer from whom the appeal is taken and with the Development Review Board a notice of appeal, specifying the grounds thereof. The officer from whom the appeal is taken shall forthwith transmit to the Board all the papers constituting the record upon which the action appealed from was taken.  An appeal from the administrative official to the Development Review Board stays all proceedings in furtherance of the action appealed from until the decision of the Development Review Board is rendered, at which time the stay of proceedings shall cease, unless the proceedings shall be further stayed by a restraining order granted by a court of record or by the Development Review Board.  The Development Review Board shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal from the administrative official and shall give due notice thereof to the parties, and decide the same within a reasonable time.  Upon the hearing, any party may appear in person or by agent or by attorney.  The Development Review Board may reverse or affirm, wholly or partly, or may modify the order, requirement, decision, action or determination appealed from, and shall make such order, requirement, decision or determination as in its opinion ought to be made in the premises, and to that end shall have all of the powers of the officer from whom the appeal is taken.  Where there are practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships in the way of carrying out the strict letter of such ordinances, the Development Review Board shall have the power, in passing upon appeals, to vary or modify any of the regulations or provisions of such ordinances relating to subdivisions, plats, maps and all other requirements of the ordinance, in harmony with the general purpose and intent of this section, so that the spirit of the ordinance may be observed, public safety, convenience and welfare secured and substantial justice done."
Section 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.