SELC asks for judicial review of CAMA permit to replace Bonner Bridge

BY CATHERINE KOZAK

BY CATHERINE KOZAK

The Southern Environmental Law Center is seeking to have a judge review a challenge to Major CAMA permit allowing construction of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.

The request for a judicial review was filed just about an hour before the courts closed on Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Attorneys for the state Division of Coastal Management learned of the filing about noon today, Monday, Nov. 26, said CRC spokeswomen Michele Walker.

The SELC had 30 days to file a petition for judicial review of the Coastal Resources Commission Chairman Bob Emory’s Oct. 23 denial of the environmental group’s request for a third-party hearing on the Major CAMA permit issued in September for the bridge.
 
The law center, representing the Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, filed its request in Wake County Superior Court at 3:52 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 21, one hour and eight minutes before the deadline. 
 
Emory stated in his denial that the hearing would be “a waste of judicial resources as well as frivolous.”

In its 44-page petition, the SELC states in part that the division erred in issuing the permit because all the project alternatives, including the use of high-speed ferries, were not properly studied. It also contends that the CRC exceeded its authority and did not abide by the law in denying the request for the third-party hearing to contest the permit.

Click here to read the SELC petition.

(Editor’s note:  This story replaces one that was published late on Wednesday before the Coastal Resources Commission was aware that SELC had filed the request.)