Woodfin – The second part of a video hearing regarding The Bluffs at Rivers Bend came to an abrupt conclusion on Monday night (April 5th) when a Woodfin Planning & Zoning Board member made a “slip of the tongue” statement.
The board asked for a poll after Attorney John Noor, representing those against allowing the project’s height variance, started a line of questioning with Jeff Moore who is the Bluff’s traffic engineer. Derek Allen, the Bluff’s Attorney, objected to the line of questioning, saying it didn’t have any relevance to the building’s height.
Despite this, Board Chairman Kenneth Pazza was in favor of allowing the questioning to continue but not before Allen asked for a poll from the board. Polling resulted in a 4-2 vote in favor for the questioning to resume. However during the polling Board Member Barbara Lamb, misunderstanding what was being voted on, made the statement that she was against allowing the height variance. Afterwards someone from Derek Allen’s own office, off-camera, made a disparaging remark toward the board. Allen apologized and ensured the board it wouldn’t happen again.
After a break in the meeting and some further questioning from John Moore, Allen asked that Lamb recuse herself from the hearing and the vote. After some discussion by Board Attorney Albert Sneed, Lamb, and Pazza, Lamb did recuse herself and left.
This caused a lack of a quorum, throwing the hearing into limbo since over six hours had already elapsed. Allen rebutted by citing a statute that he claimed would allow the meeting to go forward but both Noor and Sneed were doubtful of its merit. Razza called for the three lawyers to investigate the matter more and issued a continuance for the board’s upcoming May 3rd meeting.