By Jesse Wood
Oct. 4, 2012. “We’re back at square one.”
That’s how Mark Templeton responded on Thursday evening to the Town of Boone Board of Adjustment motion regarding the six-year battle for a medical clinic at 315 State Farm Road that his family has been fighting to build for the past six years.
The board unanimously adopted the original 37 “finding of facts” from its 2007 denial of the project to re-deny the Special Use Permit needed to build the clinic, which would have an access road on VFW Drive, where Boone Mayor Loretta Clawson, who has spoken out against the clinic in the past, lives.
The reason the board had to readdress the issue is because in March 2012 the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that Watauga County Superior Court erred in a ruling regarding this case.
N.C. Court of Appeals cited that Templeton’s counsel didn’t receive a “fair trial” at the Sept. 2, 2010, BOA meeting because residents – including Clawson – who opposed the special-use permit, received a “second chance” to present evidence while Templeton’s counsel did not.
So the N.C. Court of Appeals directed BOA to withdraw any testimony and evidence from the 2010 meeting and to “make findings of fact” solely upon testimony and evidence of the original April and May 2007 hearings. The appeals court added that no new testimony was allowed on Thursday’s hearing, which was not open to public comment.
At Thursday’s meeting, Templeton’s counsel tried to submit its own findings of fact but was denied by the board because it considered that Templeton’s documents could be construed as new testimony.
A key point that Templeton – after the meeting – pointed out after the BOA decision was that at the time of the original application for the Special Use Permit in March 2007, the proposed facility fell within the town’s Unified Development Ordinance criteria for a medical clinic in the R-1 zoned area.
However one month later at an April 2007 meeting, the Boone Town Council meeting adjusted the UDO to prohibit new medical facilities in R-1 zoned areas. In April 2007, the BOA ended up voting to deny the SUP because it wasn’t in “harmony of the surrounding neighborhood” and was not compatible with the town’s comprehensive plan.
Asked if the case would be appealed for a third time, Templeton said, “Yes. Forever.”
For a more indepth look into this case, click here: https://www.hcpress.com/news/state-court-of-appeals-turns-the-clock-back-to-2010-as-templeton-v-town-of-boone-begins-sixth-year-of-opposition.html
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