Dive Brief:

• With the Raleigh, N.C., Board of Adjustment deciding to withdraw a building permit that the city historic commission approved for a modernist house in the old Oakwood neighborhood, the city council has decided to take the city to court.
• The homeowners, architect Louis Cherry and Marsha Gordon, decided they would appeal the board's decision, which came several months into construction of their home.
• In a closed-door meeting, the city council decided it the city board should not be creating uncertainty among permit recipients, and a city announcement Thursday said the governing body will join Cherry and Gordon in asking a Wake County Superior Court judge to throw out the Board of Adjustment action.

Dive Insight:

As with most cases, the argument will be on procedural grounds rather than asking a judge to tell the Board of Adjustment to simply buzz off. The city attorney's office said the board did not establish that an across-the-street neighbor who complained after work began has standing to object and ask for the reversal. She did not try to show that allowing the building to go forward hurts her property's value, attorney Dorothy Leapley warned the board before it acted.