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Yes!

yes

Absolutely Yes. Professor David Owens from UNC School of Government said this "The provision in North Carolina zoning law for a Protest Petition, G.S.160a-385 and 386 is MANDATORY for cities." As he stressed it is mandatory that means Greensboro is in the mandatory. How the city of Greensboro got exempted back in 1971 from what i can decifer was clouded in politics. 37 years is long enough when all other cities in this state have to abide by Protest Petitions. The only way to make this happen is to get the State Representatives to understand that the injustice being done on the citizens of Greensboro is long overdue time to pass a bill to make Greensboro comply .

Yes, absolutely! It is news to me that we had, and lost, this power to present a protest petition. It is time we got that back. City Council members too often side only with developers, often developers on the board, and too often override the decisions of the Planning Board and the Zoning Commission. Our city plan is a very good document, and many, many people participated in its formation. The council treats it, at best, as a "guide" but it should be followed in spirit and in fact and seen as the master plan it is. The recent council override was typical. The new development is too dense, and the height of the structures are intrusive and incompatible with the area and are in conflict with our future land use map. Moreover, now that we are all aware of global warming, we should demand that all new development follow strict environmental rules (probably not yet formed). Those opposed to the development on the north side of Friendly didn't have a chance! The 75 percent rule could have helped.

Yes, absolutely! It is news to me that we had, and lost, this power to present a protest petition. It is time we got that back. City Council members too often side only with developers, often developers on the board, and too often override the decisions of the Planning Board and the Zoning Commission. Our city plan is a very good document, and many, many people participated in its formation. The council treats it, at best, as a "guide" but it should be followed in spirit and in fact and seen as the master plan it is. The recent council override was typical. The new development is too dense, and the height of the structures are intrusive and incompatible with the area and are in conflict with our future land use map. Moreover, now that we are all aware of global warming, we should demand that all new development follow strict environmental rules (probably not yet formed). Those opposed to the development on the north side of Friendly didn't have a chance! The 75 percent rule could have helped.

Of course Greensboro residents should have a Protest Petition option. Living here in Jamestown, we have one and I believe pretty much all other local communities in the area have one. What makes Greensboro so special? "Power corrupts absolutely, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely!" It's time Greensboro come and join the party...

From the top of a mountain Greensboro could appear to be a beautifully tranquil city. However, one only need come up close to see a writhing snake pit of evil, self-serving predators clothed as real estate attorneys, developers, contractors, real estate brokers, city council people and county commissioners all intertwined to beautify only their own wallets.

And a really close look, after asking the question, “Why don’t the people do something about it?”, would reveal that it’s the only major city in North Carolina where the people are not allowed to protest by petition!

We can’t do anything about it except every couple of years at election time and then it is usually the same snakes in new suits and dresses.

Hopefully, our state legislature will free us from such travesty.

Protest petition? Have you, our daily newspaper, informed the public as to what a protest petition is? Have our local government elected officials informed us? Most certainly not!

I consider myself to be relatively knowledgeable of local government but until a neighbor called the NC Attorney General’s office out of desperation as to how to combat power, money and political influence during the recent re-zoning off West Friendly Ave. had I heard of such a thing. Later, a letter from Keith Brown of High Point helped me to realize that this right was exercised in all large cities in NC except for Greensboro.

Thanks to the in depth reporting of Jordan Green in YES Weekly I now understand what we have been deprived of for 35 years.

Shame on you N&R! Aren’t you supposed to be the voice of the people?

As one of the many recent victims of a rezoning decision by our City Council ( Garden Lakes) that could only have been driven by developer/attorney greed, I certainly agree that we, the people that have to live with these bad decisions made by people put in office by our local developers and their attorneys need some avenue of recourse. I also think it's time to look at the process that puts these decision makers in their positions and outlaw campaign contributions by developers and their attorneys to sway votes on rezoning issues. Our quality of life and the livability of our city is being compromised by a few people wanting to make a buck at our expense. I also think it's time to address our water issues and how they are going to be comprimised by further unrestrained development.

I believe a protest petition is a right of the people. Greensboro wants to load the dice in their favor, and so took this valuable tool of the people away from them some 37 years ago. Now in this period of major development, we need this in Greensboro more than ever before. It is an essential development check and balance. If the City Council continues to turn the deaf ear to its citizens, they'll all start migrating to other nearby cities, where they can't get pick pocketed by self serving local Zoning and City Council members that have an involvement with, or a dependence on local developers for money. Isn't it an ethical compromise at best when a Commissioner owns a development company that is developing projects within his jurisdiction? If it looks bad, and smells bad, it usually IS BAD!!!
Let's level the playing field and give the people a REAL VOICE, not merely just talk of giving the people a voice in government. We work too hard all our lives to lose on the largest investment of our lives, namely our homes.

Thanks for your comments.

Our editorial will appear Sunday.

Here's the North Carolina statute allowing protest petitions:

http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_160A/GS_160A-385.html

Last tuesday about 70 neighbors and several others gathered to ratify the bylaws and elect officers of the brand new Lawndale-Lake Jeanette Neighborhood Association. As one who was in attendance and who helped get this group started, I am writing to share with citizens of Greensboro one item we discussed that evening which transcends any individual neighborhood.

In 1971 the state legislature exempted Greensboro from the state zoning laws that until then allowed directly affected neighbors of a re-zoning decision the use of a Protest Petition to challenge that re-zoning decision. A properly prepared Petition brought before the city council would require that the council vote by three-fourths majority to up-hold the re-zoning, instead of a simple majority. (7 of 9 in favor, instead of only 5 in 9)

It is time to reverse this exemption, and to restore to the citizens of Greensboro this right to challenge a rezoning decision.

This will be an important tool for citizens to use. With it we can better help the city government, and attorneys, developers and real estate professionals, whose jobs sometimes alarmingly overlap. All of us together can guide Greensboro's growth in ways good for all of us, not just a particular business sector or a particular neighborhood.

It is about time someone brought this regressive and deplorable facet of Greensboro's city council to the sunlight.
I vote YES!

Let us 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% "supermajority" for approving rezonings protested by a petition signed by 5% of the adjacent neighborhood property owners. We lost that right when, amid a host of controversial rezonings in northwest Greensboro in 1971, the NC 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% 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