The Greensboro City Council Work Session on Thursday, Dec. 14 beginning at 2 p.m. is going to be a real work session without much room for holiday cheer or fun.

While the city is facing a plethora of issues that the City Council needs to discuss in detail at a work session, there is also the boring and mundane process of running the city that has to be done.

The North Carolina General Assembly in the 2023 session changed the way city ordinances have to be written in order to be enforced. That means if the City Council doesn’t comply with those changes, the city won’t be able to enforce a long list of ordinances.

As a result, at the Dec. 14 work session, Assistant City Manager Trey Davis and Senior Assistant City Attorney Andrea Harrell will present a list of 35 ordinances that need to be revised so that the city can enforce them when the new state law goes into effect.

The revision proposed for most of the ordinances consists of adding language stating the North Carolina General Statute that covers the offence and the penalty.

For example, the ordinance prohibiting front yard parking currently states, “It shall be unlawful to park a vehicle on the front yard of any property containing a single-family or two-family dwelling, except on a hard all-weather surface such as asphalt, concrete, brick, CABC (gravel), pervious paving or other approved material in accordance with section 30-11-11 of the land development ordinance.”

The proposed addition to this ordinance is: “Pursuant to G.S.§ 14-4(b), a violation of this section shall result in an infraction with a fine of twenty-five dollars ($25.00). Each violation shall be a separate and distinct offense subject to the punishment of this Section. Any vehicle with three (3) unpaid citations within a 90-day period shall result in the offending vehicle being disabled or towed.”

Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that this particular ordinance is one that might result in discussion by some city councilmembers who have said the fine should be higher.

However, Vaughan said that she expected most of the proposed ordinance changes would be accepted as written without much if any discussion.

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