Morrison Plantation: still a mess after all these years

Do some town officials use selective leniency in dealings with developers? And if so, why?

Nearly two years after a Mooresville woman’s death triggered a public spat between developers and the Town of Mooresville over who is responsible for streets in the 483-acre Morrison Plantation development west of Mooresville, developers are yet to complete the repairs and improvements necessary for the town to take over maintenance of the development’s streets and utilities.

Pedestrian Janet Bush, 56, was killed on Sept. 5, 2006 when she was struck by a motorist while crossing Morrison Plantation Parkway and Plantation Ridge Drive, a dangerous intersection that, at the time, lacked stoplights or four-way stop signs.

The developers eventually erected a stoplight, but only amid public outcry and after playing a game of tug-of-war with the Town of Mooresville for a couple months.

Town government officials contended that developer Ed Kale of Carolina Income Management had not completed needed improvements and repairs to the streets in Morrison Plantation, including the addition of a stoplight at the dangerous intersection. The town said until that work was complete, and until the town accepted the streets for public maintenance, the streets were private and the sole responsibility of the developer.

The developers, on the other hand, argued that the roads were originally approved by the Town of Mooresville. And since the streets would eventually be publicly maintained, they stated in a Sept. 8, 2006 press release, “We’re limited in what we can do.”

In the end, the developers erected a stoplight, and folks were satisfied.

What was seemingly forgotten, however, were all the other improvements that the town’s engineering department – under the leadership of then-Engineering Director Richard McMillan – had been pushing Kale to complete in the development for several years before Bush’s death.

And as of one month ago, many repairs and improvements are still incomplete.

On Feb. 22, the town’s engineering department – now supervised by Tonia Wimberly – sent the Morrison Plantation developers a punch list of 41 repairs and improvements that need to be made on 10 different Morrison Plantation streets before the developers can submit a final request for town inspection. And until the development passes that inspection, the town will not take over public maintenance of the streets.

But why has the town continued to allow the developers to build and obtain certificates of occupancy (COs) despite their reluctance – or refusal – to bring their development up to town standards over the past several years?

Maybe we’ll never know the answer. But what we do know is that relationships that some current and former town government officials have had with Kale and other Morrison Plantation developers over the past few years provide more questions than answers.

Here’s a timeline, much of which I originally reported in a September 2006 issue of the Tribune:

Summer 2005
Issues arose from Morrison Plantation and its Meeting Street Homes residential development concerning the town’s release of COs and water meters. McMillan communicated repeatedly with Kale in public records about numerous problems within the development. McMillan told Kale that per state statutes, improvements would need to be complete before the town could release water meters.

September 2005
McMillan and the town’s then-director of utilities, Wilce Martin, continued to inform Town Manager Jamie Justice and Town Attorney Steve Gambill of problems within the Morrison Plantation development, virtually begging for the administrators’ help and support to push the developers to conform to town standards.

McMillan also repeatedly told Justice and Gambill that in his capacity as a licensed professional engineer, he could not agree to the town releasing water meters until Kale followed and completed state-mandated requirements in his development.

However, Justice “was insistent that (McMillan) release the meters in order to ‘help the developer out,’” according to the lawsuit that McMillan and Martin filed against the town after Justice fired them in February 2006. (The hearing on the town's request for dismissal of that case is scheduled for April 7, by the way.)

Ignoring McMillan’s protests, Justice signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kale and instructed town staff to release the meters, telling McMillan that “If the developer and his engineer have not complied with the requirements, it (is) their butt on the line, not the town’s,” the lawsuit reads.

McMillan and Martin told Justice again that releasing the meters would violate state law since the project was incomplete and had not been certified by the developer’s engineer-of-record, as required by state regulations.

Meanwhile, McMillan and Martin called a meeting with officials of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), who told the two men that if the town released the meters before the improvements were complete, the town would be fined by the state.

McMillan and Martin relayed the state’s warning to Justice, who apparently chastised the two men for meeting with NCDENR. McMillan and Martin responded that it was their “duty to protect the Town and the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

October 3, 2005
Four developers – including two from Morrison Plantation – lambaste McMillan and the town’s engineering staff at a town board meeting. Kale, the most confrontational developer at the meeting, called the engineering department “incompetent, disorganized, unprofessional, unreasonable and out of control.”

He told commissioners that he had been called to speak at the meeting. Each developer who spoke that evening later stated they were called to attend the meeting, according to McMillan and Martin’s lawsuit. It states that McMillan and Martin later discovered that Assistant Town Manager Erskine Smith - who is now serving as the town's interim town manager - asked the developers to attend the meeting and “publicly disparage” McMillan and the engineering department.

Smith, according to the lawsuit, later told Martin that he was simply following Justice’s orders to summon the developers to the town board meeting.

It also states that Justice never requested a response from McMillan concerning the developers’ comments at that town board meeting.

But then-Mayor Al Jones asked McMillan to respond to the allegations, which McMillan did in a six-page public document dated Oct. 10, 2005. In it, McMillan stated: “Staff has been trying to get Mr. Kale to correct many problems in Morrison Plantation so his problems will not become taxpayer problems, being correct(ed) with taxpayer dollars. None of the roads in Morrison Plantation have been accepted by the Town due to the fact that they are all falling apart. Very little if any effort has been made to correct."

Also, McMillan stated in the response: “Over the years, Mr. Kale has made many comments to Staff concerning his relationship with the Town and Staff. Many times he has praised Staff for helping, next time calling Staff ‘liars’, next time offering tickets to golf championships, next time blasting staff about costing him money. Mr. Kale has been treated with respect, as any customer or developer. Staff always looks for compromises – win-win scenarios. But sometimes, when things are not being done properly, the answer the Town must provide is ‘no’.”

… Did he say golf tickets??? ...

Back to the Oct. 3 town board meeting: when the developers had completed their public remarks that night, then-commissioner Frank Owens – who was defeated the following month in his bid for at-large commissioner – told Kale, “Our administration and board will see that you’re treated better.”

Interestingly, another developer, Neil Kapadia of Faison, sent McMillan an e-mail on Oct. 7, 2005, stating: “I was embarrassed by the way you guys were treated in the public meeting by certain developers in the area. I believe you two have been good to work with, and while not always agreeing with our opinions, were willing to listen to reason. I want you to know that you have my support and if you need me to show up at a meeting and speak my mind, I’m willing to do so.”

November 2005
Bill Thunberg was elected Mooresville’s mayor in his first bid for the seat.

Records at the Iredell County Elections Office show that two weeks after the Oct. 3 town board meeting, which Thunberg attended, the mayor-hopeful accepted sizeable campaign contributions from several Morrison Plantation developers, including $500 from Pamela Rice, a receptionist for Ed Kale’s Carolina Income Management; $1,000 from James Flowers III, president of Carolina Income Properties; $500 from Sandra Anderson, a Morrison Plantation bookkeeper; and $1,000 from original Morrison Plantation developer Rex Welton. (As an aside, Thunberg was re-elected in November 2007. I have not checked with the Elections Office to see if his 2007 campaign was bankrolled by developers.)

McMillan sent a letter to Kale on Nov. 1, instructing him to make needed street improvements in the Morrison Plantation development and to install a traffic signal at the intersection of Morrison Plantation Parkway and Plantation Ridge Drive. He said work on the improvements needed to begin “immediately” and be paid for by Kale’s Carolina Income Management. (Just to provide a little perspective: Bush's death at this point in the timeline is still 10 months away.)

January 2006
Several town officials – including Justice, Gambill, McMillan, Martin, Thunberg and Commissioners Chris Carney and Frank Rader – met with Morrison Plantation developers to discuss the development’s problems and, specifically, the stoplight at the Morrison Plantation Parkway and Plantation Ridge Drive, with McMillan stressing the importance of Kale installing a traffic signal there.

“Mooresville staff was very much trying to find a way to help move the situation along,” recalled Carney. “Everybody was trying to find a way to be fair but still get the necessary improvements done – not just with that road, but all the other roads (in Morrison Plantation).”

Due to the number of improvements needed, Carney said the town decided to let Kale complete his work in phases, with the first phase being completed and approved within two weeks after the January meeting. Thunberg at that meeting appointed Justice the “go-to-man” for Kale. But nine months later, none of those improvements were complete. It is unclear how many, if any, of those improvements are included in the February 2008 punch list.

February 2006
Four months after the Oct. 3 town board meeting – and two months after Thunberg was sworn into office – and three weeks after most of the town administration and several commissioners met with the Morrison Plantation developers – Justice fired McMillan and Martin. In the separation notices, which were left anonymously on my desk at the Tribune, Justice listed several reasons for McMillan’s firing. Interestingly, one was “constant work issues with … the development community.”

But McMillan has contended that Justice fired him, among other reasons, for adamantly requiring developers to meet town standards and for refusing to violate numerous state laws despite the town manager's instruction.

Also in February 2006, Owens, no longer a town commissioner, urged the public in a letter to area newspapers to “listen to the developers” who criticized McMillan and the engineering department at the October town board meeting. Also, Owens wrote: "I have worked with and for many Town Managers and they all had their good traits and their bad ones. Mr. Justice, in my opinion, is the best Town Manager we have ever had. He stood up for what is right, knowing that your paper was going to bash him in print."

May 2006
Steve Allen, an independent consultant hired by the town in November 2005, told Mooresville commissioners that a barrier is needed between the town board and developers.

Developers, said Allen, should not bypass town staff and go directly to the board to seek approval for a project, either officially or unofficially, and no member of the board should respond to such overtures. “The seven most divisive words are ‘let me see what I can do,’” he said.

Allen’s report also concluded that while more staff members were needed in the engineering department, and the town’s technology and design standards needed updating, the engineering department, under McMillan’s leadership, had a quicker turnaround time for review than many towns in the region and a well-established plan review process.

September 2006
Bush was killed in the dangerous Morrison Plantation intersection.

February 2008
Justice resigned, per the request of the majority of Mooresville’s town board. About three weeks later, the town sent Morrison Plantation developers yet another punch list of items that must be corrected in their development before the town will take over the streets.

To bring it all home: A lady died. Yes, a much-needed stoplight was eventually erected at the intersection where she died. But many other improvements still need to be made in the development. And for some reason, the town and the Morrison Plantation developers can’t seem to get it together and move it along.

Why has the town continued to allow the developer to build and receive COs when he clearly has not completed his project? Are all developers in Mooresville treated this way, or only a select few?

Why would our town manager risk being fined by the state in an effort to “work with the developer?” Why would our town manager and Assistant Town Manager Erskine Smith – who’s now our interim town manager – ask developers to show up at a town board meeting and publicly blast our town staff? And why would one of our former town commissioners, who was a sitting commissioner during that meeting, promise those developers they would be "treated better"? Why, after that commissioner was ousted, did he write a letter to local newspapers, asking us, the Mooresville taxpayers, to “listen to the developers” instead of our own town staff?

Further, why would Mayor Bill Thunberg, two weeks after witnessing the fiasco that happened in that Oc.t 3 meeting, accept campaign contributions from the same developers who were there, publicly blasting our town staff – the same developers who in 2008 are still dragging their feet?

Why did our town manager fire the two men who were jumping up and down about this situation, clearly trying to look out for the best interest of Mooresville taxpayers?

And what the heck is up with those darned championship golf tickets???...