After months of legal conflict threatened to spoil the deal, Durham Technical Community College soon will acquire the land it needs to build a satellite campus in Orange County.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of the land, off N.C. 86 in Hillsborough, at its Tuesday meeting in a motion that lacked the friction of previous efforts to secure the site.
The commissioners received no public comment and unanimously approved an amendment for the purchase contract.
The amendment pushes back some construction dates for the campus, which is still scheduled to open in fall 2007.
The delays are mostly the result of a recently resolved dispute between the campus developer and the owners of a tract of land that will serve as a campus access road from N.C. 86.
The dispute arose earlier this year when the Trump Group, the Florida-based developer hired by the town of Hillsborough, and the owners of the property, heirs to Marvin Glenn and Doris Huckabee, failed to reach an agreement about a price for the access road land.
The Trump Group requested that the town seize the property through eminent domain — the process by which a public body can acquire private property for public use.
But the Hillsborough Town Board waited for the parties to resolve the issue, which the two ultimately did in early March.
Despite the delay in some construction deadlines, Pam Jones, director of purchasing and central services for the county, said the changes will not affect the completion date of the project.
