An avalanche of pro-polluter bills landed on desks in the NC General Assembly since the start of April. We look at three of the worst this week, and ask our readers for action on two.
HB 729: Solar Energy Under Threat
HB 729, misleadingly titled the “Farmland Protection Act”, would originally have infringed on farmers’ property rights by making it illegal for them to lease their land for solar projects. This was so widely unpopular that bill sponsors have removed that part of the bill.
In fact, the revenue from leasing part of their land for a solar project can enable farmers to continue using the remainder of their land for agriculture—land that would all be lost permanently if sold off for residential development, a far more prevalent way in which farmland in North Carolina is converted to another use. The bill’s principal impact now would be disincentivize use of any land for solar projects by repealing the existing partial property tax exemption for these projects.
Learn more and take action to oppose HB 729!
HB 765: Irresponsible Developers Want to Gut Local Land Use Rules
HB 765, “Local Government Development Regulations Omnibus”, contains a sweeping scheme by big developers to completely gut zoning and land use planning by cities and counties in North Carolina.
Organizations representing cities (NC League of Municipalities, NCLM) and counties (NC Association of County Commissioners, NCACC) as well as individual municipalities and counties around the state are sounding the alarm regarding HB 765. “The NCACC believes land-use decisions should remain local, as one-size-fits-all state mandates don’t reflect the unique needs and character of each county. Commissioners are accountable to their communities and best positioned to make these decisions.”
Some of the bill’s most destructive provisions include the following:
- Disqualify county commissioners and city/town council members from rezoning votes for prior undisclosed conversations or opinions (meaning any emails, conversations, or other communications with constituents or communities). This is intended to intimidate and restrict commissioners from speaking with impacted community members. Right now, we have a legislative process in which local elected officials can hear from and respond directly to constituents. This bill would convert this process into a quasi-judicial process of lawyers and “expert” witnesses in which big developers have an even greater advantage over impacted communities facing environmental or other harm.
- Mandated minimum densities for residential areas, regardless of whether this encourages urban sprawl into areas far from city or town limits.
- Elimination of conditional zoning at the rezoning applicant’s request, a process through which developers can make binding commitments to safeguards like wooded buffers or stream protections.
- Judicial review of consistency statements, encouraging developers to sue when their rezoning petitions are denied.
- New legal liabilities for counties and individual commissioners, including punitive damages, discouraging them from turning down a rezoning request even when it would damage communities or the natural environment.
- Required decisions on rezoning and site plans within 90 days, a greatly accelerated process for major development rezoning requests.
All of these changes are intended to systematically stack the deck in favor of well-funded big developers and against average neighborhoods and communities who are at risk from poorly planned or sited development. The passage of HB 765 would radically and permanently take local government in North Carolina completely off the playing field when land, water, and wildlife conservation are at stake.
Let your representatives know that you oppose HB 765, which would be more accurately titled the “Bad Neighbor Bill”
SB 472: Throwing Away Our Wetlands
SB 472, “Amend 401 Certification Process”, would effectively eliminate North Carolina’s use of its authority under the Clean Water Act to review federal permits to fill or dredge wetlands.
401 permits are the way states review licenses and permits for projects expelling pollutants into our waters. These permits allow an independent state department to evaluate and decide whether or not these projects are harmful or helpful to surrounding communities.
The bill would “deem approved” any application for a 401 permit that isn’t processed by the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) within five days of receipt. This is an impossible deadline for complex water quality certifications and processes. Right now, law requires NCDEQ is given five days to determine if an application is complete. Then, their decision is due 60 or 90 days (depending on whether there is a public hearing) following receipt of a complete application. Changing the deadline to five days could remove North Carolinians from the process entirely. “The bill would exploit staffing shortages at an underfunded DEQ to allow potentially harmful projects to speed past the approval process. Coupled with ongoing chaos at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and changes to wetlands protections during the last General Assembly, S472 could be the most damaging environmental legislation we see this year,” comments an email alert from the NC Chapter of the Sierra Club.
