Guest opinion: How is zoning responsible?

New signs have sprung up in the Town of Caroline, adding additional spice to our ongoing dispute over the enactment of town wide zoning. They say “Support Responsible Zoning” and offer a counterpoint to the ubiquitous “No Zoning Needed” signs that have been around for the last nine months.

Unlike some others in the anti-zoning camp, I am glad to see these signs. For months the town board has been telling us that we who oppose zoning are in a minority. Perhaps. While I’m not a fan of “decision by sign count”, the appearance of pro-zoning signs does offer one albeit crude way of getting a head count. And now we are seeing some very creative new anti-zoning signs enlivening our town.

Putting aside the fun we’re having with these signs, it would be useful for us to ponder the message, “Support Responsible Zoning”. Myself and others have blathered about oxymorons, but let’s take the message seriously for a few moments, while recognizing the rhetorical trick of attempting to seize the high ground by invoking responsibility.

Is it responsible to limit the housing options of the less well off by insisting that developers can only build one house per each three acres of a given parcel (tinyurl.com/2z9yw8ll, pg.44, table 2, ag/rural)? If the houses are concentrated, the remaining acres must be taken out of circulation for development purposes, thus raising the costs per lot and incentivizing larger, more expensive houses.

Is it responsible to so assiduously “protect” slopes and swale from building, thus herding what building there is onto the better farmland?

Is it responsible to prohibit an entrepreneur from opening a bakery, office, or body shop on his property in certain parts of the town and force him to comply with an arbitrary review process in other parts?

Is it responsible to expect a resident or small entrepreneur to read and understand a document that will surely end up at well over 100 pages to learn the various nit-picks that may be imposed on her?

Is it responsible to impose extensive and arbitrary “water resource” overlays on people’s property, thus limiting what they might otherwise legally do with that property?

And is the town board behaving responsibly by burdening the town with a three year commercial building moratorium (tinyurl.com/2levu6rd 3rd renewal through April, 2023) while it struggles to strong arm zoning down our throats before we have an opportunity to test its support at the ballot box?

Just what benefits would zoning confer if implemented in our town?

Would zoning make for better relations among neighbors?

Would zoning help what few farmers we have left or encourage more creative uses of the land?

Would zoning help lower income families start their first homes?

So, I can’t help but wonder just who wants zoning anyway.

Is it the old time residents, many of whom own modest houses in Brooktondale or Caroline Center?

Is it people like myself who moved here as a young adult and stayed because of the good people and the “live and let live” ethos?

Is it middle and upper middle-class folks who have fled a city for life in the country and fear many more doing as they have?

Is it people who profess to love the country but don’t understand that engines hanging from tree limbs and dogs chained to school buses are also part of rural America?

And is it the newly arrived homeowner who when complaining to the town board about neighbors riding dirt bikes and wondering why the board did not enforce its zoning codes was told by the supervisor that there is no zoning in Caroline? That was in 2006 and I spoke at that meeting as well. Unfortunately the minutes do not reflect what was said verbatim but see the second paragraph under “Noise from Motocross” to get the gist. Believe me, I would not forget such a lovely and telling exchange as that (tinyurl.com/2z885qcy).

Yes, these new signs are a good thing. The next time we pass one on the road, let’s think about responsibility.