Rhino Times Has An Epiphany on Protest Petitions in Greensboro

City Staff Wants To Control Your Home

The Rhino Times has a new article out this week by John Hammer called "City Staff Wants To Control Your Home", click on the link above. John Hammer writes this,"The City of Greensboro now has a program called the neighborhood conservation overlay (NCO) district, designed to force an eclectic, older neighborhood – like what they are calling "Greater Kirkwood" – into the mold of a new, cookie-cutter housing development with a homeowners' association".

Let's do a little history lesson on Rhino Times and Protest Petition for Greensboro, here is a post back on May 3, 2008 when the state legislator of this state were getting ready to go back into short session here is that post CLICKHERE and here is a quote from the first paragraph,"The reason I post this e mail is because I have e mailed the Rhino Times 3 times with no correspondence , while I also went to their web site and did a letter to the editor about Protest Petitions to no avail. Maybe this might help with a correspondence."

Then finally on July 17, 2008 after the short session of the state legislature was over and plenty of anonymous letters to the editors in between this time at the Rhino they finally printed the letter to the editor about restoring Protest Petitions to Greensboro. It was amazing to have to fight so hard to get a letter to the editor printed in the Rhino but when your whole middle section of the Rhino is real estate industry or TREBIC CARTEL as they have been nicknamed as a parody to their fight to deny the citizens of Greensboro the right to Protest Petitions.Then we see in this new article that John Hammer had a epiphany for the use of Protest Petitions in Greensboro because in the past John Hammer never wanted to talk about this issue that was resonating all over the City of Greensboro.

The Rhino Times article talks about the Kirkwood area of Greensboro which is off of lawndale and cornwallis drive near battleground avenue.John Hammer talks in length about the neighborhood conservation overlay but at the end of the article he had this to say.

"One final note, the push for an NCO in Greater Kirkwood seems to be a result of a failed plan to build a Walgreens at the intersection of Cornwallis and Lawndale drives. Since that attempt was made, the city has passed a protest petition amendment that gives neighborhoods much more power in controlling development.

The protest petition was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly, and went into effect in Greensboro, this year. It gives nearby property owners a tremendous amount of power to have a voice in rezoning requests. If a protest petition is signed by 20 percent of the property owners affected by a rezoning, or 5 percent of the property owners within 100 feet of the boundaries of the property in question, the rezoning comes to the City Council. Then the rezoning has to pass by a 7-to-2 majority. Passing a contested rezoning by a 7-to-2 majority on the City Council is extremely rare, which means the developer is going to make every attempt to get the support of the neighborhood before moving forward.

The way to keep unwanted development from Lawndale and Cornwallis is with protest petitions, not by putting another layer of regulations on the neighborhood."

It is nice to see John Hammer come around on this issue because it was very hard at the beginning to convince the good professor in David Wharton from a blog called A Little Urbanity CLICKHERE on this issue but he was a great advocate at the end and now John Hammer can see the light as well in Protest Petitions for Greensboro

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Many Deserve Thanks for Protest Petition Fight Especially The Blogging Community

Greensboro News and Record Letter to the Editor for March 15, 2009
CLICKHERE
or click on the title above. Below is what was said in the letter to the editor.

Let me first say that the blogging community kept this issue on the forefront for over a year and would like to thank all who has posted , linked or opined on the issue it was a great help.
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I want to take this opportunity to thank all who have been involved in restoring the right to protest petitions for the citizens of Greensboro and to praise our state legislators who moved this bill through the process smoothly.

To witness the special-interest group called TREBIC try to deny this state right for the citizens of Greensboro should be a wake-up call as to how far they will try to get their way.This exemption should have never happened in the first place. It came about because of back-door politics, with no citizen input. This exemption from state law made no sense.

It was time to reverse this exemption, and for anyone who wanted to call out my motives because I live in High Point and started a blog on this total injustice, think again. My motives were for the citizens of Greensboro to have the same rights I have as a resident of High Point, and the same rights as residents of every other city in this state.

Thanks to all who were involved and especially to all my friends in the local blogging community where “protest petitions for Greensboro” blogspot came to fruition and made a great difference.

Keith Brown
High Point

State Rep. Don Vaughan's Better Half and Former Council Member Speaks Out

The Greensboro News and Record had another Letter to the Editor for January 19, 2009 which was done by Nancy Vaughan, CLICKHERE or click on the title above.

Nancy Vaughan is a former Greensboro City Council member and is married to North Carolina State Representative who was just elected to Kay Hagan's North Carolina House Senate seat Don Vaughan.Here is a quote from the Letter to the Editor, "The protest petition will not eliminate controversial rezonings. But, the mere existence of the protest petition will motivate the rezoning applicant to engage in meaningful dialogue and to put forth the highest-quality proposal. It will result in improved development and development that is in greater harmony with the surrounding area. This will be especially important as we see more infill development."

It is great to hear former council members endorse restoring Protest Petitions to Greensboro especially when her husband might be a sponsor of a bill to do just that in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Willie Taylor Wants Everyone in Greensboro To Know Your Rights Were Taken Away

The Greensboro News and Record has a Letter to the Editor titled "Greensboro Residents Deserve Petition Rights", CLICKHERE or click on the title above.

This letter was written by Willie Taylor who is a member of our Coalition of Concerned Citizens of the Triad and is also a member of the League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad. Willie Taylor also this past week went to the press conference by some members of the Greensboro City Council here is that post, CLICKHERE

Guest Column on Protest Petitions for Greensboro

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens Member Keith Brown wrote a Guest Column to the Greensboro News And Record on Thursday May 15, 2008, click here to comment.



Greensboro residents want rights on zoning
By Keith Brown
Thursday, May. 15, 2008 3:00 am

The N.C. General Assembly can create new law and destroy old law. Cities such as Greensboro are subject to those laws, unless state legislators allow an exception.

In 1971, local elected officials supported a bill under a cloud of politics to exempt Greensboro from N.C. General Statutes 160a-385 and 386, which created what formally is called a "protest petition." This exemption never should have been made in the first place and is bad public policy.

Protest petitions are used if a certain percentage of property owners most affected by a zoning change object to the rezoning. These residents may petition for a super-majority vote of at least 7-2 to approve the rezoning.

Protest petitions level the playing field for residents, especially when pro-development members of the City Council are making rezoning decisions.

Professor David Owens of the UNC School of Government says, "The provision in North Carolina zoning law for a protest petition is mandatory for cities." His use of the word "mandatory" demonstrates that Greensboro is not following a law every other city must follow. As stated before, the General Assembly can destroy old law, and this exemption is definitely old law.

To hear Gary Rogers from the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition (TREBIC) say that Greensboro, back in 1971, had the foresight to exempt itself from this statute is condescending to citizens here. No, Mr. Rogers, it was not foresight. It was an effort to take away a right of the citizens to use the power of petitions against unwanted development in established neighborhoods.

Those who oppose protest petitions in Greensboro say they would discourage in-fill development. They say the current exemption aids growth, and not having the exemption would hurt growth.
Yet Raleigh and Charlotte have protest petitions, and both have grown faster than Greensboro since the exemption has been in effect.

Because I live in High Point, my neighborhood had the right to use a protest petition against a major developer not once, but twice, in a highly contested rezoning case off N.C. 68. I'm certain Greensboro citizens also would like to have this powerful tool as their voice against encroaching development.

Why not let the Guilford County legislative delegation push a bill to make the city of Greensboro comply with this state law? This would give Greensboro residents the same right as other North Carolina residents who live in cities.

Thirty-seven years is long enough. Let your state legislators know you would like to have protest petitions back in Greensboro.

I will leave you with a quote from a Greensboro resident who said it well: "It's time that citizens had a way to stop the business-as-usual crowd from developing our quality of life out of existence."

Keith Brown lives in High Point and is a member of Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

ADD ONE MORE N&R EDIT. on PROTEST PETITION

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