[Durham INC] Zoning Protest Petitions -Significant Developments!

[Tom Miller]

Dear Neighbors:

 

Your e-mails seem to be having an effect.  Yesterday the NC Senate wheeled
out its own version of the regulatory reform bill.  This new version is H.
B. 74.  I know this is confusing.  We have the house version with a senate
bill number, S. B. 112, and now we have a senate version with a house  bill
number.  Bear with me, I will try to explain.

 

According to reports I have received, senate leaders have substantially
amended H. B. 74 to make it look very similar to S. B. 112.  There are
differences, though.  One of them is that the senate version saves zoning
protest petitions and some other local government prerogatives in the zoning
area.  I wish I could tell you more, but I haven't seen this new version of
H. B. 74 yet (because it didn't actually pass the Senate Rules Committee
yesterday, there isn't a public version).  What this means is that the
senate is not happy with S. B. 112 and, because it cannot amend it (it's a
"concurrence" bill at this point), the senate is preparing its own version
of state-wide regulatory reform to send back to the house.  While I cannot
say for sure, it appears that senators, having heard from so many of you and
your neighbors, may have decided to leave the protest petition repeal out of
the senate version of the bill.

 

So what's to be done now?  We must keep up the pressure on our elected
officials and, because some version of regulatory reform must pass, we must
start writing to all members of our legislative delegations - both in the
senate AND IN THE HOUSE - even those house members that voted for S. B. 112
last week.

 

Do this please:

 

1)      E-mail all the members of the General Assembly from your community,
both in the Senate and the House.  Tell them to save your right to file a
zoning protest petition in whatever version of the regulatory reform bill
they may ultimately pass.  Please do not say "Vote against S. B. 112" or
"Vote for H. B. 74."  Both bills are loaded with provisions that legislators
and citizens feel passionate about.  We don't want to get tangled up in the
larger debate.  Also, because the situation is fluid, we don't know which
bill will start moving or what it may ultimately say.  Our message should be
"Don't tamper with the right of an ordinary citizen to file a zoning protest
petition."  You can find your senators' and representatives' e-mail
addresses at www.ncleg.net.

2)      Share this message with other neighborhood advocates in your
community.  Post it on your neighborhood listserves and facebook pages.
Messages form ordinary people at home carry a great deal of weight with
elected officials in Raleigh.  (That is as it should be, right?)

3)      E-mail Governor McCrory.  He was Mayor of Charlotte and has a wealth
of knowledge about the balance of rights that is built into the zoning
process.  While he probably will not veto the final regulatory reform bill,
he should know about our issue.  He may use his influence to remove the
controversial protest petition provisions from the legislation before it
reaches his desk.  You can write the governor at
<http://www.governor.state.nc.us> www.governor.state.nc.us.

 

Thanks to you all.  Together we can make a difference.

 

Tom Miller

Durham

 

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