At the end of March, and after four days of hearings since
October, 2011, Brunswick County’s Planning Board denied Operation Services’
application for a Special Exception Permit to construct a landfill near Supply,
NC, in the historic African American community of Royal Oak. The County spent $266,000 on legal services
in defense of the permit, which, according to County Manager Marty Lawing, was
necessary due to opposition to the permit.
ROCCA clients and attorneys in Brunswick County after the March 2012 hearing
The UNC Center for Civil Rights represented the opposition, a
community group called the Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Association (ROCCA). Members of ROCCA gave moving testimony at the
hearing regarding the proposed Construction and Demolition (C & D) landfill’s
adverse impact on their health and safety, and many of them also testified that
they believe that the County chose to place another landfill in their community
because they are African American.
ROCCA Legal Team (L to R): Elizabeth Haddix and Peter Gilbert, Center for Civil Rights; Jack Holtzman, Legal Aid NC Fair Housing Project; Ray Owens, Higgins & Owens PLLC;
Royal
Oak already hosts the Waste Transfer Station, the Waste Water Treatment, the
animal shelter, and a number of sand mines. Royal Oak hosted the County’s municipal solid waste landfill (now closed
and covered by the current C & D landfill) since at least 1983, and has
hosted the County’s only C & D landfill since 1997. The current landfill was scheduled to close
in 2014. “We are looking forward to an
end to the trucks, the dust, the noise and the negative stigma of living next
to the landfill,” said ROCCA president Lewis Dozier.
Center attorneys Elizabeth Haddix and Peter Gilbert
with ROCCA President Lewis Dozier
ROCCA and several Royal Oak residents filed a complaint in
Brunswick County Superior Court last June alleging that the County’s location
of solid waste facilities and other potentially hazardous land uses in their
community, as well as the County’s denial of public water and sewer
services to Royal Oak residents, has a
disparate and adverse impact on their African American community, and is
motivated by race discrimination. That
case, which includes claims under North Carolina’s Fair Housing Act and the
state constitution, is still in the discovery stages. All the plaintiffs seek declaratory and
injunctive relief, a part of which would
stop the County from expanding or intensifying the use of the landfill in Royal
Oak. The named plaintiffs also seek
monetary relief for harm and injury caused by the alleged racial
discrimination, the denial of water and sewer services, and the
disproportionate burdening of their community with the County’s solid waste
facilities, animal shelter and sand mines. Read the Complaint
For more information, contact Senior Attorney Elizabeth Haddix.
News:
History of this case:
Posted by Elizabeth M. Haddix on Fri. May 11, 2012 11:22 AM
Categories: Brunswick County, Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Race Discrimination