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Variances for sale if the price is right? |
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Friday, 21 March 2008 |
Setting standards for growth is a time-honored component of community values.
Those standards – zoning ordinances – invite residents to invest in their property and allay fears of their neighbor doing anything on their property to devalue their investment.
Communities also control development through the zoning process to preserve teh very qualities that make the ocmmunity so inviting to newcomers who wish to invest in their own future.
The establishment of a comprehensive zoning plan with thoughtful review periods can be found at the cornerstone of every enviable community in thenation. And each of those communites went througha great deal of public debate before deciding on where the lines should be drawn.
In those towns, variances to the zoning rules require public comment. Every neighbor within a mile or so of the property in question is given an opportunity to speak at a hearing.
Some rules are just so basic that no exceptions are even entertained – locating a gas station in the heart of a single-family home zone, for example. But others, such as a side-yard setback requirement – the distance between your building and your ot boundary – may be open to minor adjustments in some towns.
Even in those cases, however, the public isn't always going to agree, and it's times like these when citizens in those towns can count on their public staff and officials to protect eh major components of zoning and keep them infomred of minor variances.
"Incentive zoning," as described by staff in Mammoth, is foreign to that time-honored process. Basically, it says that the zoning ordinance is for sale if the price is right and everyone concerned is willing to sell.
On its face, "incentive zoning" sounds like bribery.
Buying a variance has no place in organized, controlled growth that protects the investments of those already here.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Mammoth Times Editorial Board.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 March 2008 )
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