It’s a standard dirty trick by pro-polluter legislators: hijack a completely unrelated bill that has already passed the other chamber. Then, insert the contents of a bad bill that has previously stalled out under its original title and bill number.

The Return of the Bad Neighbor Bill

In this case, the pro-polluter sponsor of HB 765, the Bad Neighbor Bill full of anti-environmental provisions and gifts to big developers, has inserted that bill’s contents into the shell of SB 205, which originally dealt with swimming pools. This zombie legislation, now re-titled “Swimming Pools/Housing Regulatory Reform,” was swiftly voted out of the House Committee on Regulatory Reform on June 11. By no coincidence, that committee is chaired by a main sponsor of HB 765, Rep. Jeff Zenger (R-Forsyth), who is personally a professional developer and under changed zoning law could stand to gain enormous financial advantage by threatening lawsuits against local governments who denied rezoning requests for his developments.

That’s hardly a unique story for the legislature, which has become an extremely friendly environment for the development lobby. Political action committees and wealthy individual members of the development industry spread around a lot of money at campaign time to recipients in both major parties, and their influence reflects that pattern. (It’s one reason that the work of citizen environmental groups like NCLCV to level the campaign playing field is so important.)

Local Officials Are Speaking Out

Fortunately, in the case of this legislation, its extreme positions stripping authority from local governments to reasonably regulate the impacts from poorly planned or sited development has raised strong opposition from local elected officials in rural counties as well as urban ones. Strong bipartisan opposition routed the original HB 765 to a stall in the House Committee on Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House. It can do the same again with the overhauled SB 205 that now contains the contents of HB 765.

What’s In the Bill

Here’s a recap of the most anti-environment and community-damaging provisions of the new SB 205:

• Disqualifies local officials from voting on rezoning cases if they have any prior undisclosed conversations on that rezoning. This is intended to intimidate and restrict local elected officials from speaking with impacted community members. Right now, local elected officials can hear from and respond directly to constituents. This bill would turn that into a court-like process dominated by lawyers and “expert” witnesses, giving big developers even more power over impacted communities.
• Mandates minimum densities for residential areas, regardless of whether this encourages urban sprawl into areas far from city or town limits.
• Eliminates voluntary “conditional” zoning, a process through which developers can make binding commitments to install safeguards like wooded buffers or stream protections.
• Sets up judicial review of the language in zoning decisions about whether a rezoning is “consistent” with local plans and rules, encouraging developers to sue when their rezoning petitions are denied.
• Creates 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.
• Requires decisions on rezoning and site plans within 90 days, a greatly accelerated process for major development rezoning requests. 

The Bigger Picture

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 or SB 205 would radically and permanently take local government in North Carolina completely off the playing field when land, water, and wildlife conservation are at stake.

Take Action Now

Both Democratic and Republican members of the NC House need to hear from constituents now in opposition to SB 205. You can contact your NC House representative using this tool now!