Gates County Government Violating the U.S. Fair Housing Act

Zoning ordinance ignoring the U.S. Fair Housing Act, and discriminating against working class people with low income, which are also disproportionately black Americans.

April 20, 2008

NC NEWS -- Gates County Board of Commissioners, has knowingly adopted an exclusionary zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance discriminates against low income housing development violating the U.S. Fair Housing Act. Currently, in Gates County, North Carolina there is a lack of low-income housing available to meet the needs of the county's median income population who just happen to be disproportionately black Americans.

On November 21, 2006, at a special meeting of the Gates County Board of Commissioners and Gates County Board of Education met to discuss whether to secure a 15-year loan or a 20-year loan for a $6.5 million capital fund project that would expand public schools in Gates County. During this public meeting Assistant Superintendent of Schools stated:

"The regulations you all put in place, if what I read is true, (Referring to the Draft Zoning Ordinance.) then you know as these developments go in. We are going to require paved roads and some other amenities, and stick built homes or manufactured homes. Then you would accept the "kind" of people moving into the County could not afford to move here anymore. So, either they're not going to build, or the people that do build are going to building a more extensive tax base for us."

Therefore, Gates County Board of Commissioners and Gates County Board of Education, both knew by design, the Gates County Zoning Ordinance, which would eventually be adopted on March 5, 2007, would be exclusionary in regards to providing a proportionate number of low income housing for future generations. Both these Boards knew that by placing exclusionary regulations on the development of low income housing, they would either force low income residents to build homes they could not afford, or force them out of Gates County. This was all perpetrated to increase the County's property tax base, willfully ignoring the U.S. Fair Housing Act, and discriminating against working class people with low income, which are also disproportionately black Americans.

Further evidence shows that the Director of Planning and Development, Randall Cahoon, collaborated with this discrimination against the lower income working class living in Gates County. At a monthly Planning and Development meeting designing the County's Zoning Ordinance, Calhoon stated:

"65% of Gates County residents work in Virginia and these residents add very little to the tax base if they are building manufactured homes on what little land can be developed, plus doing all grocery shopping and entertainment spending in another state."

Gates County residents have no other choice but to shop outside the County, do to the lack of business development within the county to meet the supply or demand needs of their families. Obviously, Calhoon's statement is discriminatory, singling out the majority of Gates County's workforce, which happens to be in the lower end of the County's $37,000 median annual income, owns manufactured homes, and are disproportionately black Americans who work in Virginia.

Since the adoption of the Gates County Zoning Ordinance, more than 65% of Gates County's homes are considered nonconforming with the current zoning regulations. The classification of R-1 zones where placed on areas having a majority of manufactured homes. These clusters or districts of homes are normally zoned RMH-1, which represents their true situs. Unfortunately, these neighborhoods of manufactured homes are now misrepresented as R-1 zones, and are considered nonconforming use within the zoning district.

All of this misrepresentation of the actual reality existing in Gates County, North Carolina was orchestrated to by a one-party Democrat board to increase the County's property tax base at the expense of the County's residential taxpayers.

Concluding, the true moral of this news story is that when citizens choose to be represented by a one party governing body, they can expect to give up their democratic rights afforded by a two-party or multiparty government system. Thank God. I'm a conservative.

Published by: Rob Cross

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