The Greensboro City Council meets for the second time in two weeks, on Tuesday, July 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber.

Usually, the City Council meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month. The first meeting of the month is the public forum meeting and the second is the business meeting.

Since, this year, July 4 fell on Tuesday, the public forum meeting was moved to July 11 and the business meeting is being held Tuesday, July 18.

Despite all the other concerns that come before the City Council, zoning and rezoning requests take the most time at the monthly business meeting. For zoning requests, both proponents and opponents are allowed 20 minutes to present their cases, and when you add in time for City Council discussion, it is unusual for a contested zoning issue to be resolved in less than an hour.

If there is no opposition, the council whips through zoning and rezoning requests as fast as they can officially be read into the record.  If Councilmember Yvonne Johnson had her way, the uncontested zoning requests would move even faster.  Johnson often makes a motion to approve an uncontested zoning as soon as the item is read into the record.

At the July 18 meeting, the City Council has a hotly contested rezoning request for 2005 and 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.  The request is to rezone 0.43 acres from Commercial Low (C-L) to Conditional District-Commercial-Medium (CD-C-M). City staff recommended in favor of the request.

The conditions limit the uses of the property, require a 6-foot-tall opaque fence along residential property lines, limit the size of the building and the height of the sign.

On the property as it is currently zoned, there are no conditions and any use permitted in the C-L zoning district would be allowed.

At the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on June 12, Akan Davis said he was asking that the property be rezoned so he could move his automobile sales business from High Point to Greensboro.

Seven people spoke against the rezoning request many stated that automobile sales was not compatible with the neighborhood.

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 to deny the rezoning request.

 

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