News-Record.com

What the developers don't control thru their purchased elected officials then the drug dealers control by their infiltration into the GPD. Which of course leaves little room for the tax payers who pick up the tab while watching their city being destroyed.

All of over 400 neighbors are not opposed to multi-family which is the majority of the area surrounding this 13 acre proposed development site. We would like to see something that fits with its surrounding communities which are all developed between 3 and 9 units per acre. They're proposed 18 units/acre is just way too much! Not only is it way too much, it also does not have any consideration to preserve a spring feed pond that leads into our water supply and 3 story building are too high bordering single story homes. Bottom line is this proposed development plan does not fit the neighborhood, the small land space, or the environment. Let's remember that even it's neighbor Coble Farm's is a newly developed community with 252 homes on 52 acres......and they want to put 228 homes on 13 acres. I've said this before, I thought rezoning was the developer fits the land and the neighborhoods needs not the land and neighborhoods fit the developer's needs. Yes, I believe Mr. Kelly is right in saying "I have always heard the statement that developers and real estate people run Greensboro," he said. "It's an absolute fact."

Why would wealthy developers like Robbie Perkins and Winstead even bother to run for these boards if there were nothing for them to gain from being seated on the board? Wasn't it your own paper that reported Perkin's surprise after being seated that there were issues other than zoning that the council must deal with?

All these people understand is bulldoze and burn and their only interest is in putting cash in their own pockets.

It should be against the law as a conflict of interest for contractors, developers and mortgage bankers to sit on municipal boards.

Real estate development is a major factor in the local economy; its influence and power in local politics cannot be denied. Without development interests we need to ask where our economic base would be today, and what other activity might have taken its place.

There is great reward in real estate development, but there also is a high risk of failure that correlates closely with changing economics, such as rising interest rates, inflation, and recession.

Over the years development has been an integral and friendly part of Greensboro's growth, but in recent years this relationship has been strained. An influx of new developers, added to the fear of missing out on a good development deal, has lead to an unbroken string of new development that lacks any sense of unity with the city's core mission. Too often our master plan, Connections 2025, has been amended or abused to allow unfettered development activity. Too little thought seems to have been given to the city's ability to provide quality city services - water, environmental services, and public safety - in the newly developed areas.

It seems we may soon reach a point where two lines converge: one being the availability of water and other city services; the other representing new development. Beyond the point where these lines intersect the city's ability to maintain quality services begins to fall.
Public safety may already be in this category, with water resources not far behind.

Government should not stand in the way of development; instead, it must protect the delicate balance between real estate development and its ability to provide essential city services. Our quality of life must be preserved and not compromised.

It should be pretty clear to anyone that development industry types who run for office are there to further their own causes. Nefarious intent or not, there's the net effect of tilting the playing field. That leads to a favorable reading of the comprehensive land use plan to read that high density is called for near the loop interchanges. Well, there's also provisions about preventing urban sprawl, protecting existing neighborhoods, and having harmony with the existing area. Funny that only the zoning commission seems to give the balanced reading to this document. Must be a group of new faces there. That's refreshing to know. I hope they don't run afoul of their sponsors.

What we have here is an expedient reading of the plan to fit the developers' desire for quick profit. We've already seen this before with projects that pushes high density sprawl to the edge of the city instead of center city where it belongs. They give these projects a cookie cutter designation of 'mixed use'. One only needs to visit Horsepen Creek/Old Battleground roads at Battleground in any direction to see what the consequences are.

Looking at the most recent election and where most of the candidates' money comes from, I'd say it rises to corrupt levels. I don't trust that developers who run for office are necessarily out for the greatest good for the most. To get into office and promote your own financial self interest over the community's wishes and interests is just that whether it's legal or not. Mr. Knight says it better than I. We can't continue to push high density development while failing to provide the basic services they require. Where are the few thousand residents envisioned around this interchange going to get their water and police protection? What is the tax revenue generated for a single apartment that pays for the services it requires?

If ethics truly matter to the city council then developers and related professionals who sit at hearings for these projects should recuse themselves even if they have no direct financial interest. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for such actions from a group that bought a hockey team and tried to hide it from the taxpayers or took money intended for low income housing to buy votes from a certain political faction.

the citizens of greensboro need to have a say in the rezoning process and that say is something called a PROTEST PETITION. This is a North Carolina statute that all major cities of this great state have but i am told that Greensboro is exempt from the general statute. To the greensboro pro developers please show me that you are exempt and if not then it is going to be a different ball game from this day on where the citizens have a fight in this process with having a protest petition. If you want to find out about this please go to yahoo and type in rezoning protest petition, see what comes up . It is amazing just how this process works and look out greensboro protest petitions are coming.

MEGA builders and their attorney try to convince the City Council that their project is just another multi-family development which is not true. 228 homes and over 400 parking spaces are neither necessary nor reasonable in an area of townhomes with much lower density. What they do not say, but "explained to the neighbors at a meeting" is that the owners of the property have more than doubled the price they want for their land and the density proposed is the least MEGA builders can accept to recoup the cost of land plus construction costs.
Its all about greed and we truely hope that at least 5 council members realize that what is being done to our neighborhood can soon be done to theirs unless they stop it now.

Don't forget the city council trotted out this comprehensive zoning plan with great fanfare, trumpeting the reduction of urban sprawl, being more sensitive to surrounding, existing neighborhoods,etc. So far the answer to urban sprawl is to increase the density of the sprawl. The answer to existing neighborhood concerns is more multi-family in greater concentration. Meanwhile the infrastructure to support these projects is neglected.