Hotel lawsuit over? No appeal filed to NC Supreme Court on Griffith Street Hotel

Based on the best information available received here at aShortChronicle, the Griffith Street Hotel lawsuit appears to be over...at least as far as the possibility of legal action to overturn the Superior Court decision effectively preventing the proposed hotel being built as planned sandwiched between CSD and the Westside neighborhood, and across from Spinnaker Cove.

Earlier this week saw the last day pass where defendants could ask for discretionary NC Supreme Court review of the case after losing in the NC Cpurt of Appeals in a unanimous 3-0 decision.  See previous story on that here.  That NC Appeals Court decision entered on June 18th became final on July 8th.  Defendants had 30 days to ask for Supreme Court review and that date passed as of Wednesday of this week.  While certainly a relief for those concerned about this project, it would have been surprising if Defendants had appealed since the likelihood of the NC Supreme Court accepting the request was very, very slim.

Assuming nothing changes, this means the case is over in practical terms.

No hotel can be built without the proper zoning and that zoning does not exist at this time.  However, according to Davidson Town Hall, as of Wednesday afternoon the developer had not contacted the Town about formally withdrawing the project.  The sign for the project on the property has come down, but the project is still listed on the Town's website.  That's not an uncommon thing to happen, but with a controversial project such as this, aShortChronicle will be checking back regularly for any new information.

While no hotel can be built without a complete redo of the zoning process (and there is no indication at this time that is in the works), that does not mean the action on this controversy is completely over.

After winning the initial decision and prior to the Defendants filing an appeal, the Plaintiffs had previously filed a motion seeking attorney's fees for this action.  That was more than a year ago on July 11, 2018.  That motion was set aside pending the Appeals Court decision.  With a unanimous decision in the Plaintiff's favor, there is no reason to believe that a motion for attorney's fees will not go forward now.

Stay tuned.  This story is not completely over.

However, for a controversy that started more than three and a half years ago and cost citizens a significant amount of time and money, it does seem to be winding down.  You can read the whole history here at aShortChronicle.