[Durham INC] Zoning protest Petition Bill Update

[Tom Miller]

Dear Neighbors:

 

As I indicated to you in my message last week, the House of Representative
moved the zoning protest petition repeal provisions from Senate Bill 493 to
Senate Bill 734.  The House then passed the bill with the repeal provisions
intact.  The bill was sent back to the Senate for concurrence, an up-or-down
vote on the bill as the House has amended it.  Yesterday the Senate referred
the bill to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.  I suspect that the bill
was place in this committee to hold while House and Senate leaders negotiate
the about the budget.  This will give us a little time to communicate to our
senators that we do not want this bill or any bill to pass into law as long
as it contains measures which would repeal a neighbor's time honored right
to file a protest petition in a rezoning case.

 

So please, take this opportunity (it may be brief) to email or call  all the
senators who represent your city, town, or community.  You can find your
senators' contact information at the General Assembly's website,
www.ncleg.net .  On the homepage of that site, in the upper right-hand
corner, you will find a box that will enable you to find your senators'
contact information. It says "View Member Info.."  In that same set of boxes
you can pull up the bill and read the repeal language.  The bill covers a
host of topics and issues, so you will have to search a bit.

 

Your e-mails to your senators should be short and polite, but unequivocal.
To succeed in this we must have the support of democrats and republicans.
This isn't a party issue.  It's about every citizen's right to protect his
or her investment in his or her home, business, farm, and neighborhood.  The
right to file a protest petition is not a novelty.  It has existed as long
as we have had zoning in North Carolina.  It was part of the original
enabling legislation that passed in 1923.  It came from model zoning
legislation promulgated by the US Department of Commerce when Herbert Hoover
was Secretary in the Harding administration.  Because this legislation was
so influential, the zoning protest petition right exists in nearly every
city and state in the United States.  The right was made a part of zoning as
a means of protecting long-term investments in real estate from capricious
zoning changes.  To repeal the right to file a zoning protest petition will
unbalance the system of zoning in North Carolina.

 

I suggest that you also let Governor McCrory know that you oppose the repeal
of the right to file a zoning protest petition.  As a former mayor, the
governor knows how important the right is to correct decision-making in
zoning matters.  You can e-mail the governor by clicking on the contact and
e-mail buttons on the governor's website at www.governor.state.nc.us .

 

Thanks so much for your patient attention to my e-mails and for your action
on behalf of all NC citizens who wish to protect their homes and
neighborhoods.

 

Tom Miller 

Durham

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