TEGA CAY--Finalizing the Stonecrest development took three years and dozens of drafts, but at least one resident doesn't think the city did it properly.

Brian Fowler, who lives in Lakeshore, says the city never held a public hearing or passed an ordinance to officially zone the property as a planned development district (PDD) - two steps required by the city's own zoning ordinance.

"Reading Ordinance 77, if there isn't an ordinance on the books saying this is a PDD, then it's never been zoned," Fowler says.

Fowler requested documentation of the public hearing for the PDD zoning and copies of the advertisements announcing the hearing from City Hall. What he got in return were council minutes from the public hearing for the Stonecrest development agreement and the ads announcing it, he says.

"That is the closest they've come to saying the development agreement took care of the zoning," Fowler says.

The development agreement is a contract between Tega Cay, the landowner Herman Stone, and the developer, The Tuttle Co., but it has nothing to do with zoning or permitted uses on a piece of property. A PDD is a special zoning district that a city sets up to allow for land use that may not be possible under the city's standard zoning classifications, explains Fowler, who is a city planner for Charlotte.

Fowler also charges that city officials misled the public leading up to the adoption of the Stonecrest development agreement.

According to the Municipal Association of South Carolina, state law does not allow towns to set a zoning classification on a piece of land at the time it's annexed. But Tega Cay officials told residents that Stone and his developer could build up to 1,500 apartments in Stonecrest because of its zoning classification, if they didn't pass the development agreement.

The mayor's update from Friday, May 16, 2003 stated:

"The Stone property is zoned as a Planned Development District which allows the construction of apartment buildings... PDD zoning at the Stonecrest property would allow up to 1,500 multi-family units to be constructed."

Fowler says this is false because there had never been a public hearing or ordinance to zone the property. He says without a zoning classification, the property had no development rights. He maintains that the property still has no development rights, because the hearing has not happened and an ordinance has not been passed by the Tega Cay City Council.

Tega Cay officials say Fowler is mistaken.

"The city attorneys have assured me that there was nothing illegal done in regards to the Stonecrest annexation and zoning," City Manager Grant Duffield says.

The property was annexed before Duffield came to work for the city, though, so Duffield was not personally involved in the process.

Only one member of the current city council, Larry Harper, was on the council when the council annexed Stonecrest.

Harper says he stands behind the work done by the previous council.

"We had so many meetings and got so many opinions from attorneys and planners that I can't believe we missed anything," he says.

Councilwoman Judi Tesla has taken up Fowler's concerns, though. She wants City Attorney Bob McCleave to give her a written explanation of what the city did in zoning Stonecrest.

Tesla caused a furor on the council recently when she announced she sent a letter to the state attorney general seeking help in the matter.

Mayor Bob Runde said he was appalled that Tesla didn't come to the council first and he called her behavior unprofessional, but she refused to apologize.

As of last week, Tesla had not gotten any response from McCleave.