More than 10 years ago, Mountain Air Development Corporation sought approval to expand its golf course community in the mountain community of Burnsville, N.C. When two local residents and an environmental group claimed the expansion violated a number of environmental laws and regulations, Mountain Air hired McGuireWoods to defend it. Culminating a decade of litigation, on Aug. 27, 2010, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the development was allowed – specifically ruling in a case of first impression that under the state’s sedimentation control act, permanent development could be constructed along trout streams. A previous ruling to the contrary by the North Carolina Court of Appeals had basically stopped all development in the western part of the state.
An article on this decision appeared in the Aug. 30, 2010, edition of BNA’s Daily Environment Report.