On December 8, 2009, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, in an opinion authored by Judge Barbara Jackson, unanimously decided that the Union County Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, or "APFO," was unlawful and invalid as a matter of law. The decision came months after a Union County trial court had upheld the APFO.
The Court of Appeals determined that the County's APFO impermissibly sought to shift school construction costs onto the backs of land owners and developers in the County who were responsible for new construction. The Court of Appeals made clear that under North Carolina law, each individual county bears the responsibility of providing adequate school facilities for its residents and that the County’s zoning and subdivision control authority did not authorize the adoption of the APFO.
Raleigh, NC attorneys Dan Higgins and Jay Mills, with Burns, Day & Presnell, P.A., represented the Union Land Owners Association, which challenged the ordinance.
You can read the Court of Appeals opinion here:
http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/opinions/2009/pdf/090035-1.pdf
**Burns, Day & Presnell, P.A. does not make any representation that the results obtained in this case are representative or indicative of likelihood of success in any other case. Each case is handled by Burns, Day & Presnell, P.A. on an individual basis, and the relevant facts and applicable law in an individual case greatly affect the likelihood of success.