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GREENSBORO — Guilford County has thrown its weight behind a proposed psychiatric hospital that would treat criminal patients in High Point.

County Manager Brenda Jones Fox made it more difficult for the High Point City Council to block the hospital through rezoning.

A protest petition, signed by Fox on behalf of the county, concerns the land the county is trying to sell to GEO Care of Boca Raton, Fla., as a site for the hospital.

The deal is worth $3.1 million to the county.

As the owners of the property, the county can file a petition to prevent the rezoning. The City Council will need a vote of seven of its nine members to pass the rezoning in face of the protest petition. That will likely be difficult.

High Point Mayor Becky Smothers, who spearheaded opposition to the hospital, said she was surprised the county took the action when it did. The county filed just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday. That’s just a day before the deadline for protest petitions on the issue, which will be heard at 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 in the criminal justice system 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 hospitals, a large group of residents spoke at a High Point Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in favor of the project. That commission backed the hospital, unanimously voting against rezoning. At their Thursday meeting, the county commissioners passed a resolution supporting the protest petition in an 8-2 vote.

Commissioners Paul Gibson and Bill Bencini were the dissenting votes, both saying the county manager should have consulted the board before filing a protest petition.

Bencini, who represents High Point and is a former member of the City Council there, also reminded his fellow commissioners that High Point has land-use jurisdiction and doesn’t have to ask the commissioners’ permission to rezone.

Several commissioners had strong words for the High Point City Council, though. Most called it a transparent attempt to torpedo the county’s land sale and the planned hospital through otherwise unnecessary rezoning.

“I think that High Point really disrespected the whole notion of everything we sought to do when they sought to rezone our property without our request,” said Commissioner Billy Yow. “They did this in a plot to try to undermine the sale of the property. It’s just wrong. It’s not good politics and it shouldn’t even be good ethics.”

Commissioner Bruce Davis, who also represents High Point, said he was skeptical of the hospital at first, but has come to think it’s a positive move for the city and the county.

“I was the biggest opponent when I first heard of this sale,” Davis said. “But it was out of ignorance — not knowing what was at stake, not knowing what the company was bringing, not knowing the positive economic impact that this would bring to my community.”

Davis said the county and city of High Point don’t often see a company wanting to pay top-dollar for land these days and offering to bring in jobs without a request for incentives or tax breaks.

Bencini said he’s confident the High Point City Council, which he left to take his current commissioners’ seat, is considering all the angles.

“I think the city does understand the economic potential,” Bencini said. “But they’re also sensitive to the concerns that many in the community have expressed.”

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