JUDGE NEEDS MORE TIME TO RULE IN AUSTIN…
After four days of testimony in the case of Responsible Growth for Northcross v. Lincoln Property Co. and the city of Austin, Judge Orlinda Naranjo told the litigants that she’d get back to them next month. At issue is a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter at Northcross Mall.
From The Daily Texan:
“The court is going to take the time to read the briefs,” Naranjo said. “I’m going to take the time that is necessary to make the right decision in this case. I understand how important it is to give a ruling as soon as I can.”
Developers and lawyers representing the city called the group’s argument a “shell game” and “bloodless literalism.”
“You don’t hold up a developer and charge him with solving everybody’s problems on both sides of the roadway and upstream,” attorney Bruce Scrafford said during closing arguments. “Those are the people that say, ‘I found this clause in the Second Amendment that says I’ve got the right to bear arms so I can carry a machine gun into a post office,’ or, ‘I found some provision in the Constitution that says I don’t have to pay income taxes.’ If we’re interested in actually following the law rather than distorting it, we’ve got to look at these phrases in context.”
Northcross lawyers responded, stating that the terms used in their argument are defined in the Environmental Criteria Manual.
“What we’re asking for is a declaration of what was the law on the day this site plan was approved,” said attorney Doug Young.
What despoilers and politicians don’t seem to get — in Austin or Chicago — is that Wal-Mart is not just another big-box store.
Citizens get it.
[...] JUDGE NEEDS MORE TIME TO RULE IN AUSTIN… After four days of testimony in the case of Responsible Growth for Northcross v. Lincoln Property Co. and the city of Austin, Judge Orlinda Naranjo told the litigants that she’d get back to them next month. At issue is a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter at Northcross Mall. Keep reading… [...]
[...] In late November Judge Orlinda Naranjo told Responsible Growth for Northcross and Lincoln Property that she needed time to consider the briefs in a suit to stop the construction of a Wal-Mart in the Austin, Texas, suburb. [...]