ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners is asking Hamlet and Dobbins Heights to drop a lawsuit or risk losing funding.
At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Chairman Jeff Smart said the county would not distribute any more funds — part of an agreement following the previous board’s change in sales tax allocation — to the two municipalities if a lawsuit filed in late 2020 were to continue to drag on past Jan. 1, 2024.
Following his election to the board in 2020, Smart addressed his concerns about the strained relationships between the county and municipalities, which had resulted in lawsuits.
“We worked tirelessly on this issue to try to lessen the burden for the municipalities, and we did so by starting an annual grant program for each municipality to budget,” Smart said.
Through the program, Smart said the county has transferred $2,186,730 to the municipalities and has approved $728,910 for the current fiscal year — bringing the total to $2,915,640.
“The good news is that our relationship with the municipalities has improved and we have begun to see our partnerships bring great things to our future,” Smart said, adding that all lawsuits have been settled — except one.
On Dec. 3, 2020, the city of Hamlet, town of Dobbins Heights and two families filed a legal complaint against the county challenging a zoning decision to make way for a biochar facility.
The municipalities stated concerns about water and air pollution and the families believed the proposed facility would “adversely affect the use and enjoyment by the Individual Plaintiffs of their properties and will thereby adversely affect their property values.”
Click here to read about the zoning decision.
Click here to read about the lawsuit.
Smart said the lawsuit “continues to be very expensive to the citizens of Richmond County.”
“The commissioners, our staff and our attorneys believe that this lawsuit is frivolous and unnecessary,” Smart continued, adding that only one of the current commissioners — Dr. Rick Watkins — was on the board at the time of the lawsuit — concerning voted to rezone the Marks Creek Church Road property to heavy industrial.
“This lawsuit is preventing a future industry from creating up to fifty new jobs within our county,” Smart said.
The chairman acknowledged the concern of environmental issues at the time, but said the state has “cleared these issues” over the past two years.
In April 2021, the Division of Environmental Quality granted an air quality permit to International Tie Disposal.
Click here to read that story.
“Yet the lawsuit continues due to appeal after appeal and the costs keep piling up,” Smart said.
According to Smart, the county has spent $207,400 defending against the lawsuit.
At the beginning of the next calendar year, Smart said commissioners have directed county staff to apply the municipal funds to cover the county’s court costs.
Court documents show that Dobbins Heights was dismissed for lack of standing in June 2021 but the town appealed. The North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal in May 2023.
“We are not going to continue to give money to entities that are suing us so that they can use our monies to fund their lawsuit against the county,” Smart said.
All other municipalities will continue to receive their portion of the funding, according to the chairman.
“It is our hope that this lawsuit will be settled by the end of 2023 and that our relationship and partnerships can continue to prosper to create one Richmond County.”
