North Carolina HB 2033: Zoning/Durham County Protest Petitions.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2009
H 1
HOUSE BILL 2033

Short Title: Zoning/Durham County Protest Petitions. (Local)
Sponsors: Representatives Hall, Luebke, Michaux, and Wilkins (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Judiciary I, if favorable, Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity.
May 26, 2010
*H2033-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT ADOPTING A PROTEST PETITION REQUIREMENT FOR DURHAM COUNTY. 2
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 3
SECTION 1.(a) Zoning ordinances may from time to time be amended, 4
supplemented, changed, modified, or repealed. In case, however, of a qualified protest against a 5
zoning map amendment, that amendment shall not become effective except by favorable vote 6
of three-fourths of all the members of the Board of County Commissioners. For the purposes of 7
this subsection, vacant positions on the board and members who are excused from voting shall 8
not be considered "members of the board" for calculation of the requisite supermajority. 9
To qualify as a protest under this section, the petition must be signed by the owners 10
of either (i) twenty percent (20%) or more of the area included in the proposed change or (ii) 11
five percent (5%) of a 100-foot-wide buffer extending along the entire boundary of each 12
discrete or separate area proposed to be rezoned. A street right-of-way shall not be considered 13
in computing the 100-foot buffer area as long as that street right-of-way is 100 feet wide or 14
less. When less than an entire parcel of land is subject to the proposed zoning map amendment, 15
the 100-foot buffer shall be measured from the property line of that parcel. In the absence of 16
evidence to the contrary, the county may rely on the county tax listing to determine the 17
"owners" of potentially qualifying areas. 18
The foregoing provisions concerning protests shall not be applicable to an 19
amendment to an adopted (i) special use district, (ii) conditional use district, or (iii) conditional 20
district if the amendment does not change the types of uses that are permitted within the district 21
or increase the approved density for residential development, or increase the total approved size 22
of nonresidential development, or reduce the size of any buffers, or screening approved for the 23
special use district, conditional use district, or conditional district. 24
SECTION 1.(b) No protest against any change in or amendment to a zoning 25
ordinance or zoning map shall be valid or effective unless it be in the form of a written petition 26
actually bearing the signatures of the requisite number of property owners and stating that the 27
signers do protest the proposed change or amendment, and unless it shall have been received by 28
the Clerk to the Board of Commissioners in sufficient time to allow the County at least four 29
normal work days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, before the date 30
established for a public hearing on the proposed change or amendment to determine the 31
sufficiency and accuracy of the petition. The Board of County Commissioners may by 32
ordinance require that all protest petitions be on a form prescribed and furnished by the County, 33
and such form may prescribe any reasonable information deemed necessary to permit the 34
County to determine the sufficiency and accuracy of the petition. A person who has signed a 35
protest petition may withdraw his or her name from the petition at any time prior to the vote on 36
the proposed zoning amendment. Only those protest petitions that meet the qualifying 37

General Assembly of North Carolina Session 2009
Page 2 House Bill 2033-First Edition
standards set forth above at the time of the vote on the zoning amendment shall trigger the 1
supermajority voting requirement. 2
SECTION 2. This act applies to the County of Durham only. 3
SECTION 3. This act is effective when it becomes law. 4