I would like everyone to know that a Anne Hummel wrote a great letter to the editor on March 9, 2008 in the Greensboro News & Record in regards to bringing back PROTEST PETITION to Greensboro please read at this link.
http://blog.news-record.com/opinion/letters/archives/2008/03/the_protest_petition_adds_laye.shtml
The protest petition adds layer of protection
Let's set a high bar for approving rezonings that could damage our neighborhoods permanently. I believe that recent rezonings in northwest Greensboro have shown that an added layer of protection for affected neighbors is needed.
For 36 years, the people of Greensboro have not had the citizen recourse of a protest petition enjoyed by the citizens of Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Wilmington and Asheville.
A protest petition allows citizens to force council members to muster a 75 percent "supermajority" for approving rezonings that are protested by a petition signed by 5 percent of the adjacent neighborhood property owners.
We lost that right when, amid a host of controversial rezonings in northwest Greensboro in 1971, the N.C. General Assembly amended the city charter to exempt Greensboro from this law. It is time to reinstate it.
If the City Council is persuaded that a contested development plan is reasonably fair to all concerned and is best for the city, it will be approved. The safeguard of a 75 percent supermajority would not halt such a development.
But if a controversial plan does not measure up to this high standard, it should be voted down.
Anne Hummel
Greensboro
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