Hotel lawsuit already showing transparency dividends in Davidson

As reported a couple weeks ago, Superior Court Judge William Bell granted plaintiffs motions regarding procedural issues in the Griffith Street Hotel rezoning process.  While there is not an update on that story, the outcome of that ruling appears to already be paying dividends when it comes to transparency in Davidson.

The Town sent out the below press release Thursday announcing a second public information session on the Davidson Springs project being developed by former Commissioner Rodney Graham's firm, John Marshall Homes.

Davidson Springs Public Input Session:

Monday, June 18, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

DAVIDSON, N.C – Citizens are invited to a public input session on phases 3 and 4 of the Davidson Springs development adjacent to Walnut Street and James Alexander Way led by developer John Marshall Custom Homes. The developer is planning to build eight single-family homes and eight townhomes.

The public information session will be held on Monday, June 18 from 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. in the Davidson Town Hall board room. All citizens are invited to attend.

You may view additional information on the project athttp://www.townofdavidson.org/1140/Davidson-Springs

aShortChronicle followed up with Christina Shaul, the Town Public Information Officer, as to why a second PIS was happening when the original was just done in April.  The response was "I believe their plan has been tweaked a little bit since the previous input session, so they wanted to share the latest plan."

What's also different about this second PIS is the signage giving public notice.  Take a look at the below picture.  These are the signs on the Walnut Street side of the project.

The 2nd white sign has the information required for these public information sessions allowing the citizenry to know what is actually going on with a project.  Not having this sign with this information was one of the violations of the Davidson Planning Ordinance (DPO) that the plaintiffs won in the Griffith Street Hotel lawsuit.  Having watched these development projects over the years, these white notice signs have not been in use.

While it is good a second PIS is being held on the Davidson Springs project because the plan was "tweaked", one has to wonder if the real reason is that the first one was invalid because it didn't have this signage - just like the Hotel project didn't.  If you were to ask the court, the answer certainly would be "yes".

Little by slow, citizens can take back their government and make it follow the rules.  These signs are one small example of that.