news-record.com

The House Local Government II Committee this morning passed a measure that would return protest petitions to Greensboro by a unanimous voice vote.

"The citizens of Greensboro want this," said Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat. She claims support from both Republicans and Democrats and said that the Greensboro City Council supported the change.

If passed, the bill would restore the right of Greensboro residents to use protest petitions, which was taken away from Greensboro in the 1970s. Protest petitions allow the neighbors of a property that is due to be rezoned to require the city council to vote by a super majority in order to approve the change. Such rezoning requests are sometimes controversial if they would allow land uses that neighbors oppose, such as adding an office building to a residential neighborhood.

Greensboro is the only city in the state where residents don't have that right.

The bill will next go to a judiciary committee before being heard by the full House.