North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
The plaintiff-developers argue that the defendant-county violated the unconstitutional conditions doctrine by assessing water and sewer fees prior to issuing permits to develop real property. The doctrine seeks to prevent the government from leveraging its legitimate interest in mitigating harms ...
Read More »Municipal – Public Utilities – Real Property – First Impression – Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine
Municipal – Confederate Statute Removal – Declaratory Judgment Action – Standing 
Where plaintiffs’ complaint established no basis for ownership or any other interest in a Confederate memorial statue—which plaintiffs did not claim to own and which was located on privately owned property—plaintiffs therefore alleged no legally protected interest that was ...
Read More »Municipal Impact – Fees – Civil Practice – Class Action – Certification – Refund Claim
Even if there were a statute of repose requiring plaintiffs to challenge an impact-fee ordinance within nine months of the ordinance’s passage, plaintiffs challenge the collection of the impact fee rather than the adoption of the ordinance. Moreover, the General ...
Read More »Municipal – Joint Airport Authority – Real Property Lease – Expansive Charter – Public Meetings
The charter establishing the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority (RDUAA) allows RDUAA to enter into a lease with any business subject only to (1) a 40-year term, (2) any FAA restrictions based on federal grants and (3) the requirement that RDUAA ...
Read More »Municipal – Public Utilities – Real Property – Impact Fees
Where the charter of the Greenville Utilities Commission empowers GUC to charge for contemporaneous use of its water and sewer systems, the charter does not contemplate charges for future services. Therefore, the charter did not authorize GUC to charge the ...
Read More »Municipal – Zoning – CUP – Burden of Production – No Opposing Evidence
Where petitioner PHG presented competent, material, and substantial evidence that its proposed hotel satisfied the relevant conditional use permit standards set out in the respondent-city’s unified development ordinance, and where the record contains no competent, material, and substantial evidence tending ...
Read More »Municipal – Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Extension – County Approval Required
Because Moore County was already enforcing a zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and the State Building Code in the area to which the Town of Pinebluff sought to extend its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), Pinebluff needed Moore County’s agreement or approval to ...
Read More »Municipal – Public Utilities – Impact Fees – City Charter – Constitutional Avoidance
Both sides present reasonable interpretations of the defendant-city’s charter—in which the General Assembly gave the city’s Board of Light and Water Commissioners authority to levy prospective fees for water and sewer service—and session laws extinguishing the board and transferring its ...
Read More »Municipal – Zoning – Conditional Use Permits – Interconnectivity
Where (1) the respondent-town granted a conditional use permit to petitioner-developer Jubilee Carolina, LLC, to develop a Harris Teeter grocery store, which included connectivity with a neighboring shopping center and (2) the shopping center was then sold to respondent-developer Carolina ...
Read More »Municipal – Subject Matter Jurisdiction – Nuisance – No Resolution – Outside Counsel
In order to bring suit through outside counsel, the plaintiff-city’s ordinances required that the city council adopt a resolution. Without this required vote, the council lacked the authority to commence legal proceedings against the defendant Nances. We affirm the trial ...
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