The Greensboro City Council is scheduled to hold a virtual public hearing and make a decision on the rezoning request for 2.3 acres at the intersection of Lawndale Drive and Lake Jeanette Road at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21.
It will be the City Council’s first virtual public hearing, and if you want to read about what could go wrong, read “County’s Jaw-Dropping Tech Fail Brings Unintended Comedy,” which can be found on this website.
On Jan. 22, the Zoning Commission voted unanimously to deny the request to rezone this property from Residential Single Family-3 (R-3) to Conditional District-Commercial-Low (CD-C-L). It was appealed to the Greensboro City Council and was on the agenda for the Feb. 18 meeting.
Marsh Prause, the attorney representing the developer, Kotis Properties, requested that the item be continued and said that his understanding was that the Lawndale-Lake Jeanette neighborhood association that opposed the rezoning request had agreed not to oppose the continuance.
The president of the neighborhood association, Aaron Terranova, said that his organization did not support the request for a continuance and asked that the matter be heard that night.
After some discussion, the City Council voted to continue the item to the March 17 meeting. Because of COVID-19, the March 17 meeting was postponed to March 31 and the March 31 meeting was closed to the public. Since the City Council had not yet figured out how to hold a public hearing without the public, all the public hearing items were continued to the April 21 meeting.
The City Council held a virtual meeting on April 14, but did not hold any public hearings. You might think of it as kind of a trial run for a virtual meeting. The April 21 meeting will be the first virtual meeting where the City Council attempts to hold public hearings and this rezoning request is likely to be the most contentious.
A large crowd of opponents attended the Zoning Commission meeting and were at the City Council meeting on Feb. 18, but of course at a virtual meeting a large crowd can watch the meeting but won’t be able to attend.
