Fox Is Out On A Limb Again

The citizens of Guilford County appear to be in a great deal of trouble because county staff has apparently lost the ability to understand the meanings of basic words in the English language.

This makes it very difficult for the county commissioners to govern effectively, because, for over 240 years – ever since Guilford County was founded in 1771 – county officials have communicated with each other in English. So the recent revelation that some high-ranking county staff have lost the ability to understand English is alarming to say the least.

One word in particular has caused a great deal of problems and argument recently. That term is "contingent," and the issue is the controversial rezoning request of 618 acres of land at the Guilford County Prison Farm near Gibsonville.

The request to rezone the property would affect land at and near the county's Prison Farm operations, in addition to most of the rest of the large 800-acre area. The move is for the land to be rezoned from Public Institutional (PI) to Conditional Use, Corporate Park (CU-CP). The signature on the rezoning request is that of Guilford County Manager Brenda Jones Fox, who signed on the line above the words "Property Owner." And on Wednesday, Sept. 26, Fox notified the commissioners that she was requesting the property be rezoned.

The matter was heard at the Wednesday, Oct. 10 meeting of the Guilford County Planning Board, which meets in the same second-floor meeting room of the Old Guilford County Court House that the commissioners do. That Planning Board meeting took place after The Rhinoceros Times went to press this week but, regardless, that meeting is highly unlikely to be the final word: A decision to rezone the property will be appealed to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

Speaking of the commissioners, it's the Board of Commissioners – not the county manager – that's supposed to make rezoning requests when the property in question is owned by Guilford County. So many commissioners were disturbed to find out in an email that Fox had decided to request that the property be rezoned without the request ever being made by the board, and without even having consulted the board on the issue.

Even though the Prison Farm has been the subject of a great deal of discussion lately – because a large food distribution company briefly considered putting a $100 million project at the farm – the commissioners never discussed or voted on rezoning the property. So, when the commissioners saw that Fox was requesting the property be rezoned at the very next Planning Board meeting, many commissioners were dumbfounded.

Last month, at the Tuesday, Sept. 11 Board of Commissioners meeting, Greensboro Economic Development Alliance President Dan Lynch informed the commissioners in a closed session that a supposedly large unnamed company was considering bringing 400 to 500 jobs to the county by opening a food distribution center at the Prison Farm. When the commissioners came out of that closed session, they passed a motion that was contingent upon the company locating a large-scale project at the Prison Farm as Lynch and others hoped.

That motion stated that, if a company gave Guilford County a firm commitment for such a project within 90 days, county officials were to take steps to develop the farm land as a corporate park and begin the process of relocating the Sheriff's Department's Prison Farm operations to another section of the 800-acre farm. That company, if it came to Guilford County, wanted to use 150 acres of land where the sheriff's main operations are – largely because that's the flattest part of the property.

The Board of Commissioners passed the motion that night. However, just hours later, on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 12, company officials informed Lynch that the company had eliminated Guilford County as a possibility. Around 5:30 that evening, Lynch phoned Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and told Alston the unnamed company had pulled out. Alston called Fox and asked her to inform the board. Fox called the commissioners and told them the news was "highly confidential." On Thursday, Sept. 14, The Rhinoceros Times reported that the giant company was no longer considering Guilford County.

The news depressed members of the economic development community as well as the commissioners who wanted the 500 or so jobs for the county, but the decision delighted others, such as many residents who live near the Prison Farm and didn't want the estimated 500 to 700 trucks a day going past their homes in what now is a tranquil rural area.

Since the commissioners' motion was contingent upon the company coming to the Prison Farm, and since the company had decided not to come, the commissioners thought that was that.

However, two weeks later, in a Sept. 26 email from the Planning Department, sent out through the manager's office, the commissioners learned Fox had requested the land be rezoned and that she had submitted the paperwork, and that the item was to be heard at the next Planning Board meeting.

Commissioner Billy Yow was beside himself when he saw that Fox had decided to rezone the property without any discussion of the board, and, when the commissioners held their next meeting, on Thursday, Oct. 4, Yow made a motion that the county stop the rezoning request.

Yow and other commissioners also had many questions about why county staff had decided to make such an important and wide-ranging decision without any input from the Board of Commissioners – even though the commissioners are the ones who are supposed to be running the county.

At the Oct. 4 meeting, under time set aside for new business, Yow made his motion to stop Fox's rezoning request. Yow's motion failed 5 to 6, with Commissioners Bill Bencini, Paul Gibson, Mike Winstead, Kirk Perkins and Yow voting to stop the rezoning, while Alston, Bruce Davis, Linda Shaw, Carolyn Coleman, Kay Cashion and John Parks voted to go along with Fox's plan. But before the motion failed, there was a long and heated discussion.

Yow was very forceful and animated when he started asking his questions.

"When I received this memo, I was a little taken aback," Yow said. "The language of the [Sept. 11] motion nowhere speaks to a rezoning at this time."

During the discussion, Yow read out loud, verbatim, several times, the motion that the board passed on Sept. 11.

That motion states: "Motion to approve as a part of an economic development policy a plan whereby the County will agree to take steps to develop a corporate park at the property known as the Prison Farm and further agrees at this time to relocate portions of the Prison Farm operation and to restructure certain other functions of the Prison Farm operations in such a way to make approximately 760 acres available for inclusion in the corporate park. This is contingent upon: a firm commitment of a new industrial/commercial company locating on the corporate park property providing at least 400 jobs and at least $85 million in tax base within 90 days of the date of this resolution and accommodating the needs of the Sheriff's office to meet the ongoing needs of the Prison Farm functions."

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As Yow read the motion, he stressed carefully the words "This is contingent upon," and he pointed out the specific conditions called for before the motion was to go into effect. He pointed out that there was no commitment – firm or otherwise – from any company – giant or small – to build a facility at the Prison Farm.

Yow asked how in the world county staff didn't know what the word "contingent" meant.

Yow said that "nowhere, from beginning to end" did the motion state that the county intends to rezone the Prison Farm property.

"It's all contingent upon," Yow said.

Yow also said that, while he and probably every other commissioner on the board wanted to see the Prison Farm land developed at some point, this was a ludicrous way to go about it.

"We don't even have a plan," Yow said. "There's no water."

"This is ass-backwards" Yow said.

He said that, if any private developer approached county planning staff with a request of this nature – no plan, no water, no adequate roads, no infrastructure, no information on how to provide any of that, no impact studies, no idea what type of business might go there – then they would be laughed out of the planning office the second they made their request.

"How do you expect the public and businesses to follow the rules, if this board's not going to follow the rules?" Yow asked.

Yow also said he was willing to bet that none of the other commissioners had any idea what a zoning of the type requested allowed or didn't allow.

"Do any of you know what the zoning is and what can and can't go there? Yow asked.

No one spoke up to say that they did know what the rezoning allowed and excluded.

This week, Yow said that the corporate park zoning called for isn't even the right type of zoning that the board should have requested if it had requested a rezoning. He said it made more sense to rezone the land heavy industrial since it would be more difficult and cause a greater public outcry if the board zoned the land for a corporate park, found out heavy industry wanted to go there, and then tried to rezone the property yet again to heavy industrial.

Yow told the commissioners at the Oct. 4 meeting there was no need to rush – it would take a long time to get water and city infrastructure out there anyway. And he said it made sense to study the prospects and understand the situation before moving forward with a rezoning.

Winstead, who owns and operates a property development company, is highly experience in large-scale land development.

"I tend to agree with Mr. Yow," Winstead said. "It seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse. If the county is going to play developer – which I'm not sure is the right thing to do – then I think we need to act like a developer."

Winstead said there should be use studies and some planning before simply rushing forward with a rezoning request.

Gibson was very intense at the meeting. He wanted to know where the idea to rezone the Prison Farm property had originated.

Gibson said he was "1,000 percent" in favor of developing the Prison Farm, but he added that the county should have some sort of plan.

He said any developer would conduct a study and have a plan in place first, and he added that he didn't see the urgency of rezoning the land.

"I don't know why we have to rezone this at the next meeting of the Planning Board," Gibson said.

Gibson turned to Yow.

"Mr. Yow, you're exactly right – I don't know what that zoning includes or excludes."

Perkins, who represents Gibsonville and many residents who live near the Prison Farm, also wanted to know where the idea to rezone the property had come from.

"We've gotten way ahead of ourselves," Perkins said.

Perkins said the county had no plan and he added the county would be competing with private developers at Rock Creek Center industrial park.

He also said the zoning request had come out of the blue.

"We don't have the road system there; we don't have the water," Perkins said. "Let's do a plan; let's do it right."

Cashion argued that the board should move forward with the rezoning. She said, "I look to rezoning as the first step to that plan."

Yow said after the meeting that Cashion's comment was a perfect demonstration of how highly uninformed she is about the rational process for developing property. He said it was utterly ridiculous for someone to state that, when considering developing land, the first step is to rezone it.

Other commissioners backed Fox's rezoning attempt as well. Alston, for instance, said it was "proactive instead of being reactive."

Shaw, the only Republican to vote against Yow's motion said, "We need to open this area up – we need to rezone it."

Over the last two years, Shaw has come under criticism from those who say she is too closely aligned with the liberal Democrat Alston. Shaw has also stood firmly behind Fox no matter how outlandish the manager's actions. For instance, Shaw referred to Fox's secret 2010 real estate deal that could have cost the county millions if not revealed by The Rhinoceros Times as "a mistake." Shaw has also refused to join those commissioners who have attempted to fire Fox.

On the other hand, no one is surprised when Davis goes along with Alston and, at the Oct. 4 meeting, Davis called the move to rezone the Prison Farm "progressive."

After those who favored the rezoning spoke, an even more electrified Yow raised his voice to a near shouting level and he told them that they hadn't heard one word he had said. Yow said no one was saying not to develop the land, just that this was an "ass-backward" way to do it.

"Why would you go into this thing backward," Yow asked. "Why wouldn't you do what a corporate developer would do?"

He said county staff was about to go to the Planning Board in seven days, and Yow then read the Sept. 11 motion to the board once again. He said again that the board had never authorized staff to request a rezoning.

Gibson called on Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne. Gibson asked Payne who had requested the rezoning.

Payne paused for a moment and then answered, "In my opinion, you did."

Gibson clarified that Payne was claiming the Board of Commissioners authorized it.

Payne said the Sept. 11 motion called for staff "to take steps to develop a corporate park at the property."

Gibson and Yow pointed out several times that the motion clearly stated it was conditional on a giant project that brought in at least $85 million in investment and at least 400 jobs.

Gibson told the county attorney he had never asked for a rezoning.

"I didn't do that," Gibson said. "As a board, we didn't talk about that. It never entered my mind that we asked for a rezoning."

Gibson said the board had never had any discussion about it and he reiterated that he had no idea what the zoning on the table entailed. He said that, as an at-large commissioner, he represents all the county citizens, and those citizens, he said, hadn't gotten to offer any input on this rezoning request because the commissioners were never consulted.

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On Sept. 11, when the commissioners thought the large project was on the hook, that entire discussion made it very clear that, if the company didn't come, the board expected no action. In fact, much of the argument for passing the 90-day contingent resolution went like this: Why not vote for it? If the company doesn't come here, then nothing happens.

For instance, Alston said at the Sept. 11 meeting, when the contingent 90-day motion was being discussed: "Will it happen? I don't know. It may happen; it may not. We've got a 90-day clause, and if nothing happens within 90 days, it reverts back to being a cow pasture. So we don't have anything to lose."

Other commissioners made similar arguments at the Sept. 11 meeting.

Even after Yow's motion at the Oct. 4 meeting failed, Yow and Bencini continued to ask Payne if he understood what "contingent upon" meant.

The day after the meeting, Yow sent Payne an email: "Mark, after last night I need you to give me a better understanding the meaning of (this is contingent upon) the reason is that you know there is nothing about the motion that states we would rezone the property if so show me [a] clear definition of Webster['s] dictionary."

Payne sent Yow a lengthy response (which did not, by the way, address the definition of "contingent upon.") Payne also sent copies of his explanation to the other commissioners.

Payne laid out the events and conditions leading up to the motion and he wrote: "It was in that context that the resolution was passed. Based on that it seemed clear to staff that our marching orders were to begin the long list of tasks necessary to make the development of the park happen. One of the first such tasks is rezoning the property. I think it must be noted right here that no one thought, when the resolution was passed that staff was supposed to wait until a firm commitment to start the work. We were to start but not actually move the prison farm operations, or some other irreversible thing that would fundamentally change the operation w/o the firm commitment. [note: rezoning is not something that would impact that farm operations at all since the prison farm is a grandfathered use and can continue as it is, if the county wished, for years to come exactly as it is now. In other words, the resolution as it was passed gave the staff marching orders for 90 days; if after 90 days no firm commitment was in place, then the orders were to stop and wait further direction."

Yow wrote back: "Mark, this is billy your talking to I don't believe a word of what you sent I do not see the marching orders your referring to in the motion what I do see is the manager and skip pulling your chain you still have not told me what (this is contingent upon) means to you I know what it means to me and the rest of the world please explain what you think it means."

According to Webster's dictionary, and many other dictionaries as well, "contingent" means "dependant upon."

Bencini also didn't seem convinced by Payne's defense of the move.

Bencini wrote: "Mark, if it is so freaking clear, why do you need to respond with an epistle? Bill."

Just seconds after the Board of Commissioners voted on the issue at the Oct. 4 meeting, Yow asked the clerks to the board how much the fee was to appeal a rezoning decision.

Yow said right after the meeting that he would appeal the rezoning request if the Planning Board granted Fox's request.

"It's only $200," Yow said.