Quorum court moves to codify citizens’ right to appeal planning decisions

The finance and budget committee voted to forward an amendment to the county’s planning and zoning ordinance that explicitly allows any county citizen to file administrative appeals to the quorum court and shifts notice responsibilities to appellants.

Attorney Lester told the committee that the change ‘‘solidifies’’ an existing practice: historically the county has allowed citizens to file appeals even though that right was not always spelled out in the ordinance. ‘‘Under state law, any citizen of the county can do that,’’ Lester said, adding the amendment makes the county’s intent clear and preserves an administrative appeal option before circuit court.

The amendment makes two textual changes identified by the chair. First, it adds ‘‘or any citizen of Washington County’’ to section 5n, item 1 so that a planning-board denial may be appealed by an applicant or any county citizen. Second, it replaces the word ‘‘applicant’’ with ‘‘appellant’’ in section 5, subsection m, paragraph 5, making the appellant responsible for providing individual notice to surrounding property owners consistent with the original planning-board notification.

Resident Sherry Maine, of 15451 Richards Road in Fayetteville, urged clarity before the full court and asked whether the change would alter the multi-step appeal process for conditional use permits. Maine said she had reviewed prior versions of the ordinance and wanted to avoid repeated amendments that cause confusion.

JP Eke moved to forward the ordinance amendment to the full court with a ‘‘do pass’’ recommendation; JP Washington seconded. The committee approved the recommendation on a voice vote.

The amendment will now go to the full quorum court for consideration. If adopted at the full court, it would formally codify the county’s long-standing practice of allowing citizens to seek administrative review of planning-board decisions and assign the statutory notice duties to the appellant.