Posted on 10/05/2007 5:49:29 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A business owner shot and killed himself during a City Council meeting Thursday night after members voted against his request to rezone his property, witnesses said.
Ronald "Bo" Ward, owner of Bo's Barber Shop, had told the council his business would go under if he couldn't get his home rezoned as commercial. After the 5-7 vote Thursday night, Ward stood and walked toward the council.
"Y'all have put me under. ... I'm out of here," he said before shooting himself in the head with a small handgun.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
IMHO, you are correct in that zoning ordinances are one mechanism of dealing with various property interests amicably.
However, like many other systems of governance, some manipulate it to an extreme. For example, county and state codes generated at national and international levels, then adopted and approved by local municipalities/governments, have in many situations overlooked a litany of burdens placed on the common man by adopting such legal boilerplate.
For example, there are some small towns out in the middle of the desert, with little to no income or population, where a family might own 1-20 acres as the norm, some 30 miles from the nearest amenity, and the township ‘annexes’ the land as under their jurisdiction. Such annexation is frequently driven by state or federal governmental programs which a minority of bureaucrats are knowledgeable, and are seeking large state and federal reimbursements based upon city area or population metrics.
Once the township joins into the mechanics of these municipal organizations, they frequently inherit a litany of organizational tools which extends their authority unless others exercise force to overturn their aggression.
Zoning is such an issue.
There are some townships with populations under 10000 people, which have annexed areas of over 250 sq miles, then mandate a property owner who lives a thousand feet to a mile from his nearest neighbor, must not be allowed to earn a living from his residence zoned as single family residential property. Meanwhile, there are less wealthy individuals, living in assisted care facilities, trying to make ends meet by performing some sort of service out of their homes, who now must pay 10-50% of their possible annual income for ‘business licenses’ and permission to work from the city, county, state, etc.
What I have found to be absurd is a rural community, with population less than 10,000, avg home value of less than $50,000, avg family income less than $50k, but threshold to procure new real estate, commercial or residential, at about 3-7 times median property values, and laws/ordinances prohibiting working from the home.
Zoning also fails to adequately value the effects of fiduciary responsibility, a free market economic system, and private property rights.
For example, A residential community doesn’t want a industry to be built next door, but then again the industry is better served where infrastructure supports its operations and growth.
Businesses requiring public access will tend to move to where the market supports their operations. If there isn’t a 20,000 population adjacent to a 100,000+ SF retail store, they aren’t going to move there, because they will run out of business and go bankrupt.
Likewise, High rise condominiums probably aren’t going to be built in the middle of the desert where land is available at $100/acre without roads and utilities available, because it will be less expensive to build smaller homes in dispersed areas without extensive public utilities, and population densities and real estate availability doesn’t require it. Accordingly a nitnoid regulation mandating no construction to exceed 35 ft in height, is in some ways somewhat absurd, especially when one out of 1000 structures might get built at 40 ft height for aesthetics.
Rural politics aren’t satiated by big city regulations, and visa versa.
IMHO, there is nothing wrong with owning a dog, a large one, when living in the country with more than house and room for it to roam. Owning a pack of German Shepards in a NYC loft seems a bit absurd, both form the animals and neighbors.
Having a gun cabinet with several high powered rifles and having pistol practice in the back yard is no big deal when you own several hundred acres, but in a NYC loft, it probably isn’t a safe practice. (Buying picante sauce from a southwestern ranch kitchen probably is fine, but buying picante sauce made in NYC is foolishness.)
IMHO, zoning served its purposes half a century ago for about 30 years, but today creates more problems than it solves and promotes socialism. (and is almost as bad as picante sauce made in NYC...)
Poor reporting is an understatement.
I am thankful that where I live has zoning laws. That is all that keeps some one from moving a 30 year old trailer house in next door and keep a couple herds of goats in their yard.
That is why everyone should be out to screw the government before they screw you. What a wonderful thought.
That is why everyone should be out to screw the government before they screw you. What a wonderful thought.
That is why everyone should be out to screw the government before they screw you. What a wonderful thought.
So would that increase or decrease the value of your property?
Out of curiousity, would the economics favor a goat herder moving a 30 yr old trailer next door, or is there enough demand for property that nobody else except the poor could afford it to live in that fashion?
We could also make zoning regulations prohibiting shark farms and high speed raceways from being built on a 1/6th acre parcel next door, but just because they don’t exist there doesn’t mean we’re being protected by the ordinance.
Absurd example. Businesses don't want to locate in the middle of a neighborhood. That type of business would do better near a casino or city council building. Besides, that would violate the neighbors' rights of quiet enjoyment of their property.
1517 is surrounded by what appear to be medium-sized houses on all sides. There’s no way of telling from the air whether they’re in use as homes or offices, but they don’t have parking lots, and Google Earth doesn’t have any businesses listed. The closest clearly commercial structure is a motel three doors up, about .14 miles.
Google Earth doesn’t have plat maps, of course, so I can’t be sure where Ward’s property ends, but it looks to be several acres. More than big enough for, say, a supermarket. The surrounding lots appear to be much smaller. The board might have been concerned about the scale of a commercial operation that could open on Ward’s property.
But whatever the board’s rationale, and whether their decision was right or wrong, Bo Ward’s business was in trouble because he borrowed more money than he could afford, and the zoning decision did not take from him anything he had when he decided to incur that debt. And it should go without saying that if the board was wrong, an appeal is a better option than suicide.
Good point. Charity includes the notion of not expecting anything in return,....including favoritism or even thanks. (Thanks are good manners, respecting the volition of our fellow man, responding to charity in a fashion which encourages the same thinking through faith in Christ.)
Thank you, another good example of something that brings harm. A neighbor would have a grievance that could be resolved in court. But a similar thing just happened to some relatives of mine, where dairy farm went in with about 2000 head of cattle. The smell is really bad. Guess what, the zoning board allowed it. So much for protecting people.
Thanks. I concur,...OTOH, Maybe Guido from the loan office collections division can influence the zoning commission to reconsider. ;^)
I am guessing that is the notorious Hwy 41A that runs from Ft Campbell to Clarksville. I don't know if it still is a dangerous as it once was but it was known as a pretty perilous stretch of road back when I was stationed there in the early 90's. I think it was the combination of its strange no-shoulder-drop-off design, its hilly route and its use by a lot young soldier drivers (often times coming home from the bars of Clarksville or even Nashville) that contributed to its reputation. I had a few close calls myself on that stretch of road.
The barber shop was not run out of his home. The only stated reason he wanted his home rezoned is to increase its value, which would therefore give him more equity, against which he could then borrow to keep his business afloat.
Ping to posr #189. I used the Google Earth application, not the Web-based version; it’s easier to navigate and has more features. It’ll flag basically any business listed in the yellow pages.
Useless, without zoning or other regulation, the sky is the limit and all commonsense left to the discretion of the property owner. Zoning gives the community a voice, but they also have to live with the same rules as the outsiders coming in with big plans to make changes in their quiet neighborhood.
In other words - hypocrisy is worse than murder.
What a weird little guy you are.
I'll admit, two personal attacks does make me angry but instead of the same in response I offer my friendship and if you're ever in SE PA, a meal.
It is not a silly claim. Do you really know what this man's purpose was? History is full of people that have given their lives and taken their own lives for various causes. I'm not a 'PC' guy that doesn't like to judge people, I really like to judge people. In this case, without further information, I just value this man's sacrifice, plain and simple.
So your argument that it is OK to do evil as long as you preach evil - but if you preach good and do evil it's worse.
ya' know, that's a great way to put it, not exactly what I was saying because of the whole spreading the hate part but yes. There is nothing worse than a pretender, only a pretender that does evil upon others under that guise. Think of all those slaughtered by the Socialistic Regimes.
Let us be adults that treat each other with courtesy and respect - after all, that is what sperates us from animals... and liberals.
absolute power corrupts absolutly.
this rears its ugly head time and time again in the lower eschelons of power but we do nothing.
Nifong had the same arrogance.
Judges have the same arrogance.
Commissioners on county boards who do eminent domain by fiat have the same arrogance.
The insanity is that these people do not even register their own hubris, they just blame the victims and move on.
Its never THEIR fault, they just can’t get enough tax dollars.
Suicide: A very permanent solution to temporary problems.
Just my take.
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