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GREENSBORO - Guilford County has filed a protest petition that attempts to block the High Point City Council's rezoning of the potential site of a new mental hospital that would treat criminal patients.

The petition, signed by County Manager Brenda Jones Fox on behalf of the county, concerns the portion of  land the county is trying to sell to GEO Care of Boca Raton, Fla., in a $3.1 million deal.

High Point Mayor Becky Smothers, who spearheaded the opposition to the hospital, said she was surprised the county took the action when it did -- filing just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the necessary two business days before Monday's High Point City Council meeting.

"It did surprise me," Smothers said. "A lot of things can happen when there's enough money."

At issue is a plan to consolidate forensic mental health units at two state-run hospitals -- Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh and the Central Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Butner -- into one 90-bed unit, privately run under state contract.

Such hospitals house patients who need treatment before they stand trial or who have been ordered to receive treatment in a secure hospital as part of their sentence. The proposal includes patients who need minimum, medium and maximum security supervision.

Opposition to the hospital from neighbors in High Point's Five Points area, business owners and City Council members in High Point initially sparked a move to rezone the area, which would prevent such a hospital from opening there. City Council members said they would rather see the area -- at the interchange of U.S. 311 and Greensboro Road -- used for commercial development, with restaurants and hotels.

But after GEO care flew six neighbors and business owners from Five Points to see another of their facilities, a large group of residents spoke at a High Point Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in favor of the project. The commission unanimously voted against a rezoning, meaning the High Point City Council will have to muster a two-thirds vote, or six of the nine council members, to push through the rezoning.

That would have been tough enough, politically.

Because of the protest petition, the council will now need the support of seven of the nine council members.

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian @news-record.com