Senate lawmakers vote to end protest petitions in local rezoning cases

The Senate acted Thursday to end a process North Carolina residents have used to regulate development around their property, passing a prohibition on “protest” petitions in a 39-10 vote.

House Bill 201 ends protest petitions for rezoning cases. Currently, if enough neighbors within a 100-foot radius of land proposed for rezoning signed on to a “protest” petition, state law made it harder for the project to be approved.

With a valid protest petition, a rezoning case needs a super majority – 75 percent – of the governing board’s vote. The bill would eliminate the petition, only requiring a simple majority approval.

The House already passed the HB 201 with a 89 to 28 vote. However, the bill must go back before the House for a concurrence vote before it would head to the governor. Gov. Pat McCrory has indicated he would sign the bill.

“I’ve always felt majority rule should be the case in all governments unless they’re veto overrides and things of that nature,” McCrory said as he signed an unrelated bill on Thursday. “I’ve always supported efforts to make it a fair vote for all involved.”

The Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday had stripped out a bill provision requiring a 30-day written notice to surrounding property owners for any rezoning vote, which was added in the House by Rep. Graig Meyer, a Hillsborough Democrat.

Critics of the bill say it favors developers, not residents who are put at a disadvantage with fewer resources outside of a protest petition.

Sen. Andy Wells, a Hickory Republican who introduced the bill on the floor Wednesday, emphasized that it does not eliminate a citizen’s right to protest rezoning changes or development. He added that citizens have the right to talk to local officials, and ideally they will listen.

Sen. Floyd McKissick, a Durham County Democrat, had begun an effort to add an exemption for local governing boards that would like to keep the protest petition process. But there was no discussion of that as the bill quickly passed the Senate Thursday.

McKissick said later in an interview that he thought it would be more productive to work with individual municipalities that want to re-obtain that authority in the form of future local bills instead of filing an amendment to HB 201 with statewide impact.

“When I spoke with home builders and Sen. Wells, what was very clear was that they were open to the idea of cities coming forth with revised measures to deal with protest petitions,” he said.

Although those revisions would still need to be determined, McKissick said it could involve protest petitions that trigger a simple majority vote plus one in a rezoning approval case and a higher threshold of signatures for a valid petition.

“If a local community wanted it and sought that authority as a local act under new conditions, there would be an opportunity,” McKissick said.

Charlotte Observer Staff Writer Jim Morrill contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Senate lawmakers vote to end protest petitions in local rezoning cases."