In March and again at the May 2 City Council meeting, angry representatives from sign companies have complained about the cost and length of time it takes to get projects permitted and inspected in Greensboro.
The speakers have not been polite, have made threats and appear to be really angry about the whole process. They said they were back with reinforcements on May 2 because they said the City Council, despite making promises, hadn’t done anything.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said this week that while some of the complaints have turned out to not be entirely accurate, “We are aware that we need to make some improvements to the permitting and approval process.”
Vaughan said, “We met with a large group of developers on Wednesday to find out what they think. We got a lot of good feedback.”
She said, “One thing the developers recognized is that we are at an all-time high when it comes to permit applications.”
She said that with all the economic development coming to the area, it was expected for the number of requests to continue to be high for both residential and commercial projects.
Vaughan said, “It’s obvious we need to hire more people.”
She said that one factor that was increasing the time for permits to be approved is that “the permit application has become more complex, especially when it comes to commercial and industrial construction.”
She said, “We did not hear that it takes longer in Greensboro and heard from developers expanding into Greensboro who said that it has not been their experience.”
Vaughan said that doesn’t mean that Greensboro can’t improve the process and said, “We are proactively reaching out to the development community about how we can be more user friendly. We had a really good discussion on Wednesday and got a lot of good feedback.”
Vaughan said, “These recent economic development announcements are dream announcements that we have been waiting for a long time and we are experiencing some growing pains.”
Just pee on their back tell them slo joe is in the president’s office and it’s raining. All will be well
Lol…”hire more people”. More BS from the mouths of pretenders.
These people who complain about Greensboro are not good faith actors, they hate the demographic makeup of the city so they complain incessantly!
We have results to prove we are doing a good job!
Just which demographics do they hate? And, what are the results that prove “we” are doing a good job. Who is “we” by the way? The city? The entire population?
Who are “we” and who is doing a good job? Who are “they” that hate the demographics of the city?
I ask again. What does our govt do well? Only thing I can think of is to learn how to CYA.
Here is a quick survey response. The city sucks and council makes excuses because they also suck.
Hire more people….maybe. What caught my attention was that to get the signage permits, they worked through someone working from home. If that’s true, and I suspect it is, they need to get everyone back in the office where business is done day to day so occasionally, when needed you can speak with a real person and not voicemail.
Enough people make noise and get attention! I do not think the city will give them attention
that they are hoping for. It will probably just show additional mismanagement and additional cost and the establishment of another committee and focus group, and pass the buck agreement.
Weird…all these “recent economic developments” are not in Greensboro, they are either part of the airport or Randolph county. Our Mandate Mayor has been in city government for decades and our city has been prohibitive and punitive to developers that aren’t also donors. Grifters gotta grift.