Back on January 4th I described a zoning dilemma that had cropped up here in the Aycock Neighborhood. At issue was landlord extroidinaire John Mandrano's efforts to add two utility meters to one of his properties. By doing so, each of the house's three apartments would have separate utility bills instead of one for the whole place that would have to be split among the tenants (as it has been for decades).
You'll have to read my whole post for the details, but suffice it to say that the Aycock Neighborhood Association's Board of Directors was dead set against re-zoning four properties from single family to multi-family in order to accommodate John's wishes for his newly acquired property.
The re-zoning was poo-poohed last month by Greensboro's Historic District Commission as well as our Zoning Commission. As a matter of course, the case was placed on automatic appeal before the City Council. Last night, by a 5-4 vote, the Council voted against the re-zoning as well (N&R coverage here, scroll down).
Mandrano visited my blog today and left a lengthy comment to my January 4th post to publicly let the Aycock Board know he is not pleased.. not pleased at all.
"I 'feel' like I have been slapped in the face. You 'say' you support me. Actions speak louder than words! ... Am I taking this a little too personal? You're damn right I am."
I did not support the re-zoning of these properties from my position on the Aycock Board either. I saw the proposed short-term cure to the problem to be a detriment to the long-term vitality of the neighborhood. Changing the original zoning of four properties from RS-7 to RM-18, all for sake of adding two electrical meters to one property, is way out of balance with what I consider to be the best interest of Aycock or any other neighborhood.
There is no question that John Mandrano has almost single-handedly transformed Chestnut Street into a much more desirable place to live through his efforts and investments, and this neighborhood is grateful and better for all he has done. But gratefulness should not equate with acquiescence to a bad idea.
As John correctly states in his comments, "We have a shared common goal to do something positive for this neighborhood, not only for while we are here living and working in it but also for those to come later and enjoy the fruits of our efforts." Amen. But altering so much of our - OUR - neighborhood's original zoning just to install two electrical meters was correctly seen by the Aycock Board, the Historic District Commission, the Zoning Board and a majority of our City Council as a long-term negative for this neighborhood.
10:20:11 PM 
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