Bill eliminates protest-petition rights in zoning cases | The Herald-Sun

Bill eliminates protest-petition rights in zoning cases | The Herald-Sun

Good article from Herald Sun on what the State House just did to deny neighborhoods all over this state the right to use protest petition in zoning cases.

Protest Petition for North Carolina Repeal is a Huge Mistake for Citizens and Neighborhoods All Over This State

This post below the fold was originally posted a few years ago on my first blog called Protest Petition for Greensboro 

News came out yesterday 7-10-2013  from Doug Clark on his News and Record Blog Off The Record  titled "Protest Petition in Danger"  . It seems like the powers to be at the State level of North Carolina  have slipped in a few words to repeal the Protest  Petition for the whole state. This will be both stupid and ignorant on the part of our state representatives to do this as a slip in bill to curry favor with the TREBIC cartels around the state. TREBIC cartel is our local unofficial now this year official lobbyist for the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition . Plenty of us in and around Greensboro worked very hard to bring back Protest Petition for Greensboro and as you will read below they have been trying since 2011 to deny citizens this right in a rezoning case. It will be a sad day for any neighborhood or property owner in North Carolina who is involved in a rezoning case to not have the power of the Protest Petition and to see that they slipped this repeal of Protest Petition without any discussion in a local government committee or any discussion at all is ridiculous.

__________________________________________________________________________________
On Monday 3-28-2011 there was a joint session of the Regulatory Reform Committee meeting at the campus of Guilford Tech . Community College. While looking at my twitter account i came across this tweet by Greensboro News and Record state and federal government reporter Mark Binker which he had this to say,

"TREBIC out in force at #ncga Reg Reform committee asking for repeal of protest petition rules. #GSO just got it back a couple years ago."

Here is a link to Mark Binker's twitter account CLICKHERE

The TREBIC in the post belongs to the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition our local developer lobbyist organization. It is amazing to think that it hasn't even been 2 years and they are already whining and complaining to the state about this law. To also understand that the citizens of Greensboro have been getting screwed for the past 30 years of not having this state law and we are only going on 2 years of finally having it be a part of the zoning laws to see them complain to the regulatory commission is ridiculous.

 We also have a blog post from Jordan Green at Yes Weekly on this meeting here is what Jordan had to say.

" Lolita Malave, president-elect of the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association, asked the General Assembly to repeal the protest petition, which allows neighboring property owners to trigger a requirement of a 75 percent majority vote for approval of a rezoning request if they file a valid protest petition.



“It is easier to change the US Constitution that it is to rezone your property under the protest petition,” Malave said. “The US Constitution can be changed with a simple-majority vote of the people or a two-thirds majority vote of Congress. By contrast, the owner of 5 percent of the land within 100 feet of a proposed land rezoning project can trigger a requirement for more than a super-majority vote. That equates to more than 75 percent of voters. It is absurd and unfair that such a small number of citizens can and do decide the fate of many.”


One speaker echoed Malave’s appeal, while another spoke in defense of the protest petition.

here is a link to the whole article CLICKHERE

 We also have  our local Greensboro City Council Member Zack Matheny talk about Protest Petition in a council meeting last year here is the clip;












Now we have a local city council member talk about how they are frustrated with Protest Petition being a part of the zoning process and this was over a year ago that the councilman talked about this, then we see this year they go in front of a regulatory commission meeting to let them know how they feel and want it repealed. With this being said it shows to all the citizens of Greensboro that this law is working for it's purpose and needs to stay a part of the process. 

It is time to let our local state representatives know how you feel about Protest Petition and to say to them keep this a state law and it should stay that way.


Here is a link to all of our local representatives if you would like to say to them "KEEP PROTEST PETITION AS STATE LAW".

STATE SENATE SIDE

Phil Berger CLICKHERE


STATE HOUSE SIDE

John Blust CLICKHERE

Pricey Harrison CLICKHERE
Marcus Brandon CLICKHERE
John Faircloth CLICKHERE
Alme Adams CLICKHERE

Hartzman's: On Greensboro's Saturday night self inflicted "rio...

Hartzman's: On Greensboro's Saturday night self inflicted "rio...: As Billy Jones reported ; "It seems the reasons for Mayor Perkins' proposed downtown curfew may be of his own making. Last Saturday...


Was this ever reported by mainstream media ?

Nice post on this issue from George

Supreme Court Does The Right Thing Strikes Down Key Element of Voting Rights Act of 1965

Supreme Court Strikes Down Heart of Voting Rights Act:'Our Country Has Changed' YAHOO NEWS


Triadwatch in the past years has had multiple blog post on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and what needed to be done for example

Bailout from Voting Rights Act

DOJ Pre Clearence Submission from Guilford County in Regards To The Outdated Voting Rights Act of 1965 , SCRIBD Version Embedded

here is a little bit from the article linked above

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act—reauthorized by Congress for an additional 25 years in 2006—gives the federal government the ability to pre-emptively reject changes to election law in states and counties that have a history of discriminating against minority voters. The law covers nine states and portions of seven more, most of them in the South. The formula used to decide which states are subject to this special scrutiny (set out in Section 4 of the law) is based on decades-old voter turnout and registration data, the justices ruled, which is unfair to the states covered under it. States that had a discriminatory poll test in the 1960s and low turnout among minority voters must seek special permission from the federal government to change their election laws, even though many of these states now have near-equal voter turnout rates between minorities and whites.

The court has effectively now put the ball back in Congress' court, writing in its decision that it is up to Congress to write a new formula that is based on current data. States or counties that fit the new formula could still be subject to federal "preclearance" of changes to their elections procedures. It remains to be seen whether Congress, which is now more partisanly divided than in 2006, would tackle the challenge of creating a new rubric to find and eradicate racial discrimination at the polls. The president called on Congress to pass legislation addressing the ruling in a statement on Tuesday.

As you can see from the above map in the Triad area only Rockingham and Guilford County were subject to the preclearance of the Voting Rights Act which to me was patently unfair using outdated data to determine this. Can anyone please send me a story in the past 10 or 20 years where minorities were denied to vote in Guilford County?  I am sure in the next few days plenty of lefties will be up in arms over this ruling but to me it was outdated and needs a complete overhaul to be more in tune with the times .

Voting Rights Act Chart Chief Roberts used in ruling from Business Insider

 

Look at the gap difference from 1965 to 2004 in these key states that are a part of the Voting Rights Act. Progress has been made in many states over the past 40 years and Chief Roberts said this in the article

 

"But Roberts said that the pre-clearance system for changes to voting laws no longer made sense — pointing to original conditions of pre-clearance included in the Voting Rights Act that were no longer necessary due to the gains in minority voter registration.
"Coverage today is based on decades-old data and eradicated practices," he wrote. "The formula captures States by reference to literacy tests and low voter registration and turnout in the 1960s and early 1970s. But such tests have been banned nationwide for over 40 years. And voter registration and turnout numbers in the covered States have risen dramatically in the years since."

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. made a great ruling in this case .

Greensboro Guardian Gone, Triad Conservative New Blog In Town

Heard the news today that the Greensboro Guardian will no longer have blog post in the area.

News of a new blog called Triad Conservative  is now going to hit the area , here is the greetings from this blog:

"I am pleased to announce the start-up of a new blog.  Triad Conservative will be devoted to commentary and news on local and state issues.  In addition, cultural, pro-life and pro-family matters will be discussed.  Finally, we will cover health policy and perhaps other topics as time permits.
I will be posting here approximately twice weekly; and will be running the blog. 
But Charles Davenport-- the best columnist the Greensboro News and Record ever had-- will post here periodically also.
Would you like to receive our new posts automatically?  If so, please go here to sign up.  
Please note that this new blog has a comment policy.  It is found on our "About" page.  The policy reads as follows:
Respectful comments that contribute to the conversation are welcome. There is a required sign-in process; and all comments will be moderated. We reserve the right to edit or to refrain from publishing comments that contain profanity or indecency; or that, in our judgment, are unacceptably inappropriate.
This blog is initiated in response to Charles' decision to cease any new activity at the Greensboro Guardian.  I appreciate very much his allowing me to post there over the last year or so.  
The Guardian certainly will be missed.  Charles has decided to write a book and pursue other endeavors; but I eagerly anticipate his contributions here.
Welcome aboard!
Joe Guarino
- See more at http://www.triadconservative.com/ "

Good luck with the new blog Joe.

Through The Grapevine TREBIC President Applies for Downtown Greensboro Job

As the saying goes "I heard it through the GRAPEVINE" that unofficial now official lobbyist for the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition aka "TREBIC CARTEL" Marlene Sanford has applied to become the next president of Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) .

The DGI search committee is in the process of hiring a new president to replace Ed Wolverton who leaves post July 1st.  

It is interesting to note that Marlene Sanford is applying for this job. Does this mean that the TREBIC CARTEL has lost it's luster locally or that she wants a new career path for herself? If the search committee is smart they would not hire from a contingency of the usual suspects but hire a fresh face from outside the area.

The blog dang has a post titled "Action Greensboro's leaders make a run for it"  with a few more usual suspects in Cecelia Thompson and April Harris who are wanting to be president at DGI. One anonymous commentor had this to say,
"April Harris is about to get fired. Susan Schwartz of the Cemala foundation has been lobbying hard against her. Dabney Sanders is also lobbying Jim Melvin for her dismissal."

Looks like the committee will have a tough choice to either hire from within or get a new fresh face to Downtown Greensboro.

Triad Group Blows Taxpayer Money on Trip to France Competing Against Other North Carolina City in Kinston in Same Booth

Looks like our local powers to be want to recruit in Paris France , Triad Business Journal is reporting
"The Triad group is comprised of Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance; Henry Isaacson, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority; Kevin Baker, executive director of the Piedmont Triad International Airport; Kip Blakely, TIMCO Aviation Services Inc.'s vice president of industry and government relations; and Steve Googe, executive director of the Davidson County Economic Development Commission.
Lynch said four organizations — his group, PTI, the Piedmont Triad Partnership and Davidson County — pitched in a total of $7,500 to be part of the North Carolina state pavilion at the air show. The group will use the space to promote the Triad as an ideal location for aerospace companies to set up operations."

Hope they have their expense reports in order because a public records request is in their coffers once they get back from this endeavor.

Looking at the participants in this air show let's check out the North Carolina Pavilion

AEROSPHERE AVIATION SERVICES, INC.
C.R. ONSRUD, INC.
GREENSBORO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE
IMET ALLOYS: SUPERALLOY & TITANIUM MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
LIQUIP INTERNATIONAL-BETA SYSTEMS DIVISION
MONROE- UNION COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
NLA DIAGNOSTICS LLC
North Carolina Department of Commerce
NORTH CAROLINA GLOBAL TRANSPARK
NORTH CAROLINA'S EASTERN REGION
PEMMCO MANUFACTURING
TIMCO AVIATION SERVICES

North Carolina is the King of the United States participants in regards to areas being represented in Paris Air Show from taxpayer funded groups with 5 including N.C. Department of Commerce, Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, Moore Union County Economic Development, North Carolina Global Transpark and North Carolina Eastern Region.

Here is a link to United States participants in Paris Air Show HERE

Here is a list of other airports, municipalities and states represented at the Air Show to show you how absurd it is to see 5 different areas where we should only need one entity but am sure King Zoning Stud Henry Isaacson PTI Chairman enjoys his trip to Paris every year. Other participants are: Ohio, Alabama , Arizona, Best of New England, Oregon, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia,  Mississippi(MS), Wichita, Kansas, Meridian, Maryland, Miami Airport, Jackson MS. , MS. Gulf Coast, Newport News Airport, Oklahoma , Pinellas County, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Ohio State University, Plattsburgh Airport, Rockford, South Carolina Department of Commerce, Washington State, West Massachusetts.

I am sure it is well and good to have 2 competing areas under the same roof  competing for the same companies in Greensboro and the Global Transpark in Kinston N.C. but we need to also understand how the Global Transpark has been sucking the taxpayers of this state dry for a long time , Carolina Journal has a great write up on the waste of taxpayers money in the Global Transpark in Kinston N.C.
HERE . Here is the first paragraph:

"The Global TransPark
A boondoggle from the start. This series records what is possibly the largest government waste and failure in North Carolina state history, a failed cargo-airport project that has brought false hopes but little impact to Kinston and Eastern North Carolina."

Now we have a boondoggle in Kinston competing against the local pie in the sky boondoggle Aerotropolis Board competing for the same companies in the same booth at the Paris Air Show, boy don't you just love our tax payer funded junkets to Paris France for these group of North Carolinians. Can't wait to see the expense repots from all involved.

ALSO BLOG DANG HAS SOMETHING TO SAY AS WELL ON THE SUBJECT

Newsbusted is New for 6-4-2013

hat tip: newsbusters

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Greensboro Coliseum Wasting $72,000 on Traffic and Congestion Study from Agenda for June 4th 2013 meeting

From the Greensboro City Council meeting for June 4, 2013 there are 2 items that are very interesting to take notice of that are in the report on disbursements from 4-29-13 through 5-13-2013
in a section titled under state federal and other grants is this
5-10-2013
vendor name:
Martin Alexiou Bryson PLLC

description:
Coliseum traffic & parking study

price:
$13,467.39

and

vendor name:
Martin Alexiou Bryson PLLC

description:
Congestion Management Study

price:
$58,838.39  TOTAL = $72,305.78

So as we see from this that the Greensboro City Council is spending $72,000 on 2 studies that you would think with over the years that the staff and personnel at the coliseum would know by now how to get traffic in and out of the coliseum in a timely manner . Let's also remember that over the years someone at NCDOT and coliseum came up with a brilliant idea to spend millions of dollars to add reversible lanes for High Point Road which is now gone but certainly a waste of taxpayer money to boot , below is a picture of what the reversible lanes look like

note this is not high point road but a picture of a reversible lane

You do not need to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on 2 studies to come up with a idea that should be easily fixed if the Greensboro Coliseum and Matt Brown would implement what they use during the ACC Tournament in a shuttle service from the Four Seasons mall parking lot to help with over flow crowds at coliseum events.

During these budget times and looking at ways to curb spending it would be beneficial if studies like these would not be done and save the taxpayers money .

Another Addition to the Robbie's Recusals from Greensboro City Council Meeting for May 21, 2013

Here is another addition to Robbie's Recusals from Greensboro City Council for May 21, 2013

for this agenda item from our dear friend Richie Rich Roy Carroll

Ordinance in the amount of $225,000 amending the General Fund budget for the pass-through of a Guilford County Economic Development Incentive Grant to Park View Development LLC.

N.C. Press Blowhards Won Battle But Not War in Regards to Public Notices in North Carolina

The associated press"AP" is reporting this for all the newspapers with a headline "NC Newspapers Tout Win Over Public Notice Bill"

One bill that passed crossover in the North Carolina Legislature is Senate Bill #287 and is still alive in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

In the AP report this is said,"Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, successfully pushed for an amendment that replaced the whole bill with her own measure maintaining newspaper control but with discounted rates in cases of multiple notices and free Web publishing."


Here is a report from the NC Press blowhards

"The amendment to HB 755 was sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Avila (R)-Wake. Her amendment completely substituted the language of the DENR public notices bill with the language of HB 723, the NCPA-backed compromise bill.

The vote shown are on the amendment. The main bill, as amended,was not voted on by the House on May 15. The amendment was also being attached to HB 504 and SB 287. All three bills were re-referred to the House Rules Committee."

 

What is interesting to see is how the NC Press blowhards want to substitute their pathetic do nothing bill as a whole substitution and they want to attach this amendment to Senate Bill #287 if it comes in front of the NC House since this is the last bill standing that will save millions in taxpayer money all over this state.

What needs to be done is that the blowhards from NC Press can add this amendment house bill 723 to senate bill 287  but it WILL NOT COMPLETELY substitute the whole language that is already in Senate Bill 287. The NC Press blowhards can have their amendment added to the cities and counties who want to live in the 1940's and keep on wasting taxpayer money at a dying product but allow the cities and counties who understand this is 2013 and they can provide this information to their constituents and save the taxpayers million of dollars.

 

Court Costs: where your fine from speeding tickets really goes - WECT TV6-WECT.com:News, weather & sports Wilmington, NC

Court Costs: where your fine from speeding tickets really goes - WECT TV6-WECT.com:News, weather & sports Wilmington, NC

Must read article on just where your money goes when getting a speeding ticket. I like the $7.50 that goes into the officer retirement fund.

Guilford County Taxpayers on Hook for $86,406.67 for One Day Publication in Greensboro News and Record Tax Delinquency Bill for 2013

Plenty of talk lately about public notices and changing the laws in this state so that the taxpayers will not have to foot the bill for one day invoices like this one below for the Greensboro News and Record which cost taxpayers $86,406.67 towards tax delinquency public notice law under NCGS 105-369. This is a complete waste of money and needs to go away and hopefully by next week we will have some good news out of Raleigh North Carolina where the State Representatives are working on a local bill for Guilford County that will do away with these kind of invoices sent to the taxpayers of Guilford County.

News-Record Invoice 2013 tax delinquency bill

Senator Wade's Public Notice Bill #287 Headed to House Floor Next Week,

Senate Bill #287 with primary sponsor in Local Guilford Delegation Senator Dr. Trudy Wade is making it's way through the House side of the North Carolina Legislature and it looks like it will come up for a House vote on Tuesday May 14th 2013 . Here is a report from the North Carolina League of Municipalities who are in favor of this bill,

"Two bills advanced by the House Judiciary Subcommittee B Wednesday would grant certain counties and the municipalities wholly within those counties electronic notice authority. SB 287 Notice Publication by Some Local Govs and HB 504 Local Electronic Notice each grant specific counties and their municipalities the option of publishing legally required notices on their own websites and through other means, rather than purchasing advertising space in a print newspaper. Municipalities chose electronic notice authority as an advocacy goal because current law requires them to spend upwards of $4 million annually on newspaper advertising statewide, at a time when print newspaper readership is declining and newspaper readers are not looking for public notices. Both bills now head to the House floor likely next week. SB 287 has already passed the Senate and would become law if it is approved by the full House without any changes. HB 504 would still need Senate approval before becoming law."

Then we have the North Carolina Press Association who is having a conniption over the idea of saving taxpayers money and having local governments provide the public notice to their taxpayers, check out 
MEMBER ALERT on their front page.

 

THANK YOU RHINO TIMES for Years of Service to the Triad Community

Triadwatch would like to thank the Rhinoceros Times for their service to the whole triad community with their reporting of local news for the past 20 years. It was a shocker to hear the news about the closing of the Rhino Times but as we see in the last post from John Hammer he says this"And we'd like to add that The Rhino Times will continue to have a web presence for as long as possible."

Hopefully John Hammer can bounce back from this and become a web savy reporter especially hearing from our picture embedded

this quote in the Greensboro News and Record “I think it’s good news for the city,” Perkins said. “It’s sad to see any business fail, but I’ll be glad to see the negativism they inject into the city every week go away.”

Thanks for taking the high road on this subject the Jack Ass Mayor of Greensboro was quoted in paper and we see ROCH101 with a great post to boot on the Mayor.

One aspect of the Rhino Times that has been very controversial to local government employees is the list of salaries each year from city,county,and school system which is a huge eye opener to seeing all the salaries of our local government. Who might take up this mantle since the Rhino is no longer in existence? Here is a link to a post I did on the 2012 edition of the local salaries that stays in top 5 most looked at post on triadwatch,  CLICKHERE

Thursdays will never be the same in regards to picking up the Rhino Paper for the past 20 years but hopefully we will see them all bounce back and provide the Triad area with some valuable reporting for all of us to read.