Page 4, March 18, 2019, The Islander
Appeals Board
Continued from Page 2
didn’t know the rezoning application
included all the property owned by the
Wilsons, Buchanan’s and the Alvins,
who are the other adjacent property
owners.”
“All this property was to be changed
from MR to R-9. This was a substan
tial loss in value to these families,”
Williams said.
Williams offered a history “of how
we got here.”
Apparently Duncan filed a quiet ti
tle action claiming ownership of Plum-
broke Road. The adjacent property
owners filed responses in opposition to
that quiet title action
“There is an ongoing legal battle
over ownership of that road,” Williams
said, “and my clients don’t want to see
anything done until the legal dispute
over that road is resolved. I ask that
you defer action until this law suit is
resolved.”
Fisher asked what the road owner
ship had to do with the zoning vari
ance request. He kept insisting that
Duncan’s variance request has noth
ing to do with the road.
Williams said, “Until we have reso
lution to the law suit, we don’t know
what we can do with the remainder of
the property.”
“The use for Duncan’s property af
fects what my clients can do with their
property,” Williams continued.
“Duncan can use what ever prop
erty rights he’s currently got until we
have a legal resolution to the lawsuit
that he, Duncan, filed,” Williams said.
The ZBA seemed surprised at this
information.
ZBA member Phil Viviani asked
Lief if the road was an issue in the
current variance application.
She stated the road was not related
to this specific issue; the 1940s plat
shows legal access to these (Duncan’s)
lots.
Attorney Fleming Martin, repre
senting Gloster Buchanan, another
adjacent property owner, said that a
considerable amount of property had
been rezoned without the owners
notification.
‘We are in middle of an ongoing
dispute about the status of Plumbroke
Road, who can use it, and whether
the zoning is effective for everything
shown on map,” Martin said.
“This is a highly irregular situation
and I want you to understand that.
You all can’t determine if the road is
private or not, or who can use it,” he
said.
Parker Morgan, an attorney rep
resenting the Gibson family, also an
adjacent property owner, said that
Duncan filed the quiet title action to
have a judge establish his, Duncan’s,
ownership of the road.
Morgan pointed out that the 1940
plat shows Lot 13, which is included
as a platted lot of record on the parcel
Duncan owns, is marked as a public
park.
“It’s clear on the 1940s plat that
all the public rights of way including
roads and parks are dedicated to the
public forever,” Morgan said.
“The county has filed a disclaimer
of interest regarding the road,” Mor
gan continued. “I don’t know what
that means and Mr. Williams (attor
ney Jim Williams) said he didn’t know
what that means. It means nothing.”
“The county has taken the position
they have no interest in the road or
park,” Morgan said. “It’s not just the
road but one of the lots potentially ded
icated to Glynn as public park is being
considered for this zoning variance.”
“The fact that this property is sub
ject to ongoing litigation filed by Dun
can is a major red flag,” Morgan said.
“If county is aware of litigation that it
is a party to, they can’t issue a building
permit.”
“Until a final resolution to the law
suit and the quiet title action takes
place you could grant a variance to
build something on Lot 13 when the
plat shows it as a park,” he said.
“This 1940s plat was signed off on
by County Engineer / Clerk Commis
sioners of Roads and Revenues’ (H.J.
Friedman May 15, 1940), and it is
still pending in Superior Court as to
whether Mr. Duncan legally owns the
property and the county hasn’t tak
en legal action to say they don’t own
it. And while this is well beyond the
ZBA’s purview, it is related,” Morgan
said.
Morgan continued, “There has been
a lot of argument that down zoning
caused the problem. But part of Sec
tion 507 says that in residential dis
tricts substandard lots shall only be
used for single family purposed. Even
if were still zoned medium residential,
condos could not have been built. It
would have been limited to single fam
ily homes with a minimum lot width
of 60 ft.”
Hugh Bourke spoke in opposition
saying the application is incomplete
because input from adjacent property
owners is required and was omitted.
Julian Smith spoke and said 112
property owners were notified but not
included in the packet. He also com
mented that the homes would quite
likely bought as an investment and
used for rental.
Ms. Capes who said she was an in
dustrial developer and a friend of the
adjacent land owners, said the land-
owners intent was to move forward
in their case to involve the county but
were having hard time doing so with
out suing the county over the disclaim
er of interest.
“No one legally knows how to deal
with this disclaimer,” she said.
She said the adjacent property own
ers property would be landlocked with
out a decision on the road. She also
pointed out that it is illegal to subdi
vide property with no access.
“So when the road went away by
the county’s disclaimer, those proper
ties became landlocked. The owners
don’t legally have a way to get to the
back piece without crossing other indi
vidual pieces of property,” she said.
“That hasn’t been brought up,” she
continued, and I wanted you to un
derstand this. Duncan has no urgency
to settle with the property owners as
long as he can continue to do what he
wants.”
“This has caused hardship to these
property owners in form of drawn out
legal fees. Increasingly incurring these
Turn to Page 8
Appeals Board
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