Loudoun County Virginia Bars Developers Campaign $, Guilford County Local Politicians Let's Try This

UPDATE: this is a repost from 2008 and wanted to share on TRIADWATCH

Loudoun Board Bars Use Of Builder Campaign Funds - washingtonpost.com
or click on the title above.

By Sandhya SomashekharWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; Page B01
Loudoun County supervisors voted yesterday to bar themselves from accepting campaign contributions from builders and others with proposals before the board as part of a broad effort to restore public confidence in a body that some have viewed as too close to the development community.
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Leesburg Today CLICKHERE for the whole article
07/04/2008
Loudoun Supervisors Restrict Contributions from Developers
By Erika Jacobson -
In an attempt to assure residents that there are no back-room agreements or conflicts of interest happening at the dais, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Tuesday adopted new policies limiting the action a supervisor could take on an application submitted by a campaign contributor.
"I think there has to be transparency in ethics and government. I think this takes us one step forward in making this distinction," Supervisor Susan Klimek Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) said.
Under the new policy, supervisors would be prohibited from taking campaign contributions from anyone with certain land use applications pending before the county from the time that application is submitted to six months after the board's action on the item or the withdrawal of the application. Applications included under the new policy are rezonings, special exceptions, proffer amendments, concept plan amendments, zoning appeals as well as any other appeals before the board of supervisors, Comprehensive Plan amendments and requests for early removal from Agricultural and Forestal District.
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Living in the Triad area of North Carolina my whole life. I'm saddened and disgusted by what seems to be serious misconduct involving local governmental officials, for example Heart of the Triad, campaign contributions, and developers plus their lawyers influence on boards and commissions in Guilford County and especially the city of Greensboro.

Triadwatch reported the influence of the developers on the Greensboro Land development ordinance committee CLICKHERE , also Jordan Green from Yes Weekly went farther with article on the developers more assertive on panel to rewrite Greensboro's land development ordinance CLICKHERE

We cannot ignore the substantial influence developers or their coalition called the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition also known as the TREBIC CARTEL have gained over the past decade in their pursuit of paving over every acre in Guilford County.

It is time we curb developers' influence by banning them from contributing to politicians who will decide on their zoning or land-use permits. It's also time we give the public a say in development proposals that impact their neighborhoods for example getting a bill passed to make Greensboro comply with a North Carolina General Statute called Protest Petitions.
A developer should not be allowed to financially contribute to a candidate for public office in a county or municipality in which they plan to seek government approval.I hope what has happened in Virginia trickles down south to North Carolina.