Protest petition discussion heats up

With a Greensboro City Council vote looming on Jan. 21, advocates for restoring the protest petition have ratcheted up their advocacy, and invigorated the discourse.

David Owens, a professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, spoke at a League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad luncheon on Tuesday at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Greensboro.

Owens writes in a handout distributed to the audience that contains some salient information about the practical effect of the protest petition on rezoning processes in other North Carolina cities. Here’s what I consider to be the take-home point: “A valid protest petition can, however, affect the zoning process in an indirect but significant manner. The approval rate for projects subject to a protest petition was reported to be 52 percent, compared to a 76 percent approval rate for rezoning petitions overall. This lower approval rate indicates that the depth of opposition reflected by a protest petition frequently convinces a majority of city council to oppose a rezoning. In addition, an actual or threatened protest petition may encourage the landowner, the neighbors, and the city to negotiate prior to a vote on the rezoning, which can in turn lead to project revisions.”

The full handout is available here on urban planning aficionado David Wharton’s blog. Wharton reports that the Tuesday forum was attended by several elected officials, including NC Rep. Maggie Jeffus, who indicated she would introduce legislation to restore the protest petition.

Wharton supports restoring the protest petition, too.

“I know that TREBIC is scared to death of the protest petition, but it needn’t be. Owens’ research shows that protest petitions are used quite infrequently, and they certainly haven’t hampered growth in Raleigh and Charlotte, where they are used most often. But they have encouraged developers, neighborhoods and cities to cooperate more.

“Isn’t that what everyone wants?”

YES! Weekly’s house editorial this week calls upon Greensboro council members Robbie Perkins, Zack Matheny and Mike Barber to recuse themselves on next week’s vote on the protest petition.

Conservative blogger Joe Guarino, with whom we occasionally get crosswise on other issues, concurs.

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