A civil complaint against North Carolina‘s Carteret County Board of Commissioners remains in place following a judge’s rejection of a motion to dismiss the case, a report said.
The judge also allowed the plaintiffs to amend their filing in order to add defendants.
During Monday’s session, a motion for dismissal was heard by Superior Court Judge Kent Harrell at the County Courthouse located in Beaufort.
According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer George Oliver, the judge advised the parties concerned that the motion was denied and he will give the county board 30 days to name The Cullipher Group and Dirt2Dreams LLC as defendants.
Oliver also said that the judge’s order has not yet been entered on the record.
Carteret County and the board of commissioners were the sole two defendants listed in the initial filing.
In their motion to dismiss the case (filed on August 23), after the court granted the defendants a one-month extension to reply, the county argued that the complaint was not valid since it did not include rezoning applicant The Cullipher Group or property owner Dirt2Dreams as defendants.
The first civil complaint against the county board was filed by two plaintiffs Barry Blackburn and Cathey Blackburn, who own property on West Firetower Road near the property rezoned as a recreational camping park (RCP) district in May.
Other plaintiffs mentioned in the complaint include Gilbert and Pam Taylor, James and Rebecca Dorris, and William and Lou Singleton, who also own property near the proposed camper park.
The complaint seeks a preliminary injunction, which would effectively overturn the commissioners’ 4-2 vote to rezone the 156 acres previously zoned for residential single-family into an RCP district.
The complaint claims the plaintiffs “will suffer imminent injury through loss of character of the particular neighborhood and/or local area impacted by the Rezoning Decision into a high density, high traffic area, overwhelming an area otherwise zoned as low to moderate density residential.”