Court of Appeals Sides with RDU Over Lease of Airport Land near Umstead for a Quarry

Dec. 15—RALEIGH — The governing board of Raleigh-Durham International Airport had the power to lease 105 acres of airport land for a quarry and did not violate the state's open meetings law when it approved the lease, the State Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

The ruling is another setback for opponents of the planned quarry on wooded airport land next to Umstead State Park. The Umstead Coalition, Triangle Off-Road Cyclists or TORC and three individuals sued in Wake County Superior Court arguing that the four local governments that own the airport — the cities of Raleigh and Durham and Wake and Durham counties — needed to sign off on the lease.

But Wake County Judge Graham Shirley II ruled a year ago that the airport's charter, approved by the General Assembly, and several other provisions of state law allowed the RDU Airport Authority to lease the property to Wake Stone Corp. without consulting the local governments.

In a 26-page ruling released Tuesday, the Court of Appeals agreed.

"The Charter is unambiguous in that it grants the Board authority to lease any property administered by RDUAA," wrote Judge Toby Hampson. Judges Wanda Bryant and Allegra Collins agreed.

Opponents of the quarry also argued that the Airport Authority violated the open meetings law when it approved the 25-year quarry lease without public input. The board had sought proposals to lease the property, known as the Odd Fellows Tract, in 2017 but then rejected two competing offers from Wake Stone and The Conservation Fund, a national environmental group that wanted to preserve the land for public use.

Fifteen months later, the Airport Authority gave two days notice for a special meeting to consider approving the lease with Wake Stone. RDU officials had negotiated the lease in private, and the board approved it without discussion on March 1, 2019.

Opponents said RDU should have provided more notice for the meeting and given the public a chance to weigh in.

But the Court of Appeals agreed with Judge Shirley that nothing in the airport's charter requires it to seek public feedback before leasing property and that two days notice for a special meeting was sufficient under state law.

The court also cited an earlier ruling that while discussions by public boards like the Airport Authority must "be conducted openly," nothing in state law compels a board to have a formal discussion in the first place.

Wake Stone awaiting word on mining permit

Shirley issued an injunction last winter that allows Wake Stone to move ahead with its plans to mine the Odd Fellows Tract but bars it from selling any rock from the property until the summer of 2022 or until the legal fight over the quarry has ended.

Opponents of the quarry have not decided yet whether they will appeal Tuesday's ruling.

"We just got the order this morning and are evaluating our options," Jean Spooner, head of the Umstead Coalition, said in an interview.

Spooner said that in addition to the legal challenge opponents hope to stop the quarry by persuading the state to deny the mining permit. She said the Appeals Court noted that two of the plaintiffs, Randal and Tamera Dunn, had provided evidence that showed the 400-foot-deep quarry would affect the value of their home adjacent to the Odd Fellows Tract and a few yards from Umstead State Park.

"We believe that the Mining Act of 1971 allows denial of the permit for not only the adverse impacts on their residence but also to the state park," Spooner said.

The state Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources held a virtual public hearing on the mining permit last summer but has yet to release a decision.

If Wake Stone obtains the mining and environmental permits, Shirley's injunction allows it to clear trees and remove dirt and unmarketable rock on the land. It also allows the company to build a bridge over Crabtree Creek to carry stone to its existing quarry site off North Harrison Avenue, where it would be crushed, cleaned and loaded on to trucks.

RDU had expected that the Odd Fellows Tract could be used as a quarry before it put the property up for lease. The airport's 25-year master plan, called Vision 2040, labeled the property "industrial/quarry" on a map in 2016, a year before the property was made available.

RDU officials said they needed the revenue from the lease to help pay for airport expansion, including the construction of a new main runway at a cost of an estimated $350 million. RDU expects to receive an estimated $24 million from Wake Stone, mostly in royalty payments, over 25 to 35 years of mining.

In a statement released Tuesday, the head of the Airport Authority, John Kane, said that money is needed now more than ever.

"The land-lease agreement to expand an existing quarry on airport property will generate at least $24 million at a time when RDU is experiencing unprecedented losses in revenue due to the pandemic," Kane wrote. "This non-aeronautical revenue will help sustain the airport in future years during what is expected to be a prolonged recovery from the global health crisis."

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