[Durham INC] zoning protest petitions under attack! here's the bill

[Tom Miller]

Dear neighbors:

 

The North Carolina House of Representatives Finance Committee recently
amended Senate Bill 493 to add sections 2.7 (a) though (d) which would
repeal the right of neighbors to file a zoning protest petition.  It would
also prevent cities from taking action on petitions which have been filed.
This is the measure which we expected back in May when I sent you the e-mail
message below.  The bill, as amended, has been sent back to the House
Committee on Regulatory Reform.  If we are to save the time-honored and
important right of neighbors to protest a rezoning, we must act now.  Here
is what you can do:

 

1)  Please send a short, unequivocal e-mail to all the members of your local
legislative delegation asking them to save the protest petition right by
eliminating the repeal provisions from Senate Bill 493.

                You can find the members’ e-mail addresses at
<http://www.ncleg.net> www.ncleg.net .  Contact your house and senate
members.

2)  Share this e-mail message with neighborhood advocates in your community
through their e-mail list serves and facebook pages.

3)  Let Governor McCrory know that you oppose the repeal of the protest
petition right by sending him an e-mail at
<http://www.governor.state.nc.us> www.governor.state.nc.us.

 

If we all work together we can preserve long-standing neighborhood rights,
but we must act very fast.  It is no accident that the provisions repealing
protest petition rights were kept out of the bill until the last minute.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Miller

Durham

 

>From May 2014:

 

Dear Neighbors:

 

Last summer, neighborhoods all across North Carolina were alarmed to learn
that the General Assembly amended bills in the house and the senate to
eliminate completely the time-honored right of neighbors living next to
property being rezoned to file a formal protest petition.  If passed, the
legislation would have stripped away the only protection afforded ordinary
people in the planning and zoning process in North Carolina.  Fortunately,
neighborhood advocates everywhere wrote to their legislators and the
offending legislation was stopped.

 

But the issue has not gone away.  Last month, Thomas Terrell, Jr.,  a
development attorney with the law firm of Smith Moore Leatherwood, made a
presentation to the House Committee on Property Owner Protection and Rights
in which he demanded that protest petitions be eliminated.  The committee
took no action, but the issue of protest petitions will probably come up
again when the General Assembly convenes Wednesday for its “short” session.
Neighborhoods must remain vigilant.

 

The right of a neighboring property owner to protest the proposed rezoning
of an adjacent property is as old as zoning itself in North Carolina.  The
1923 legislation that first authorized NC cities to regulate land use by
zoning expressly permitted a protest petition.  The petition right is part
of the concept of zoning, the original balance of competing interests which
is built into the zoning process.  From the beginning, when neighbors filed
a valid petition, the rezoning could pass with only a supermajority vote of
the city council.  Today, a protest petition is valid if it signed by the
owners of 5% of the band of property 100 feet wide surrounding the property
to be rezoned.  When a valid petition is filed, the rezoning can be approved
only with a ¾ majority vote of the city council.  While 5% doesn’t sound
like much, it is actually a very high bar and the result is that only a few
valid petitions are filed.  Fewer still actually result in the defeat of the
proposed rezoning.  It is the existence of the petition right in the first
place that causes developers to be good neighbors.  When the necessary
threshold of neighbors actually file a valid petition, it is a signal to the
city council and the whole community that the proposed rezoning is
controversial and deserves special scrutiny.  If the protest petition right
is taken away, the whole zoning process will be out-of-balance.  Ordinary
people, the very people whose interests in their homes are meant to be
protected by zoning rules, will lose their only leverage in a process that
is often stacked against them.  Modern zoning regulations are complicated
and ordinary people who cannot afford attorneys and land planners are
alienated from the process.  The last thing the legislature should consider
is a move that will only increase this alienation.

 

Here’s what you can do:

 

1)            Write a short, polite, but unequivocal e-mail to your state
legislators telling them to vote against any bill that tampers with zoning
protest petitions.  To find your legislators’ e-mail addresses, go to
www.ncleg.net.

2)            Alert your neighbors and other neighborhood organizations in
your community through your listserves, facebook pages, and e-mail contacts.

3)            Send an e-mail to Governor McCrory and ask his help to protect
your rights. You can do this by writing to the governor at
www.governor.state.nc.us.

 

Together, we can defend our rights.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom Miller

Durham

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