Now that the winter solstice has passed and the days are getting longer, I’m sure that we’re all looking forward to working in our gardens when the weather warms up. OK, I know that’s a bit optimistic, but let’s consider this scenario for the sake of our discussion.
Suppose you soak your seeds for two days and they’re nearly ready to put out that first little green shoot. The seeds happen to be a variety of green beans that grow vines and climb. The soil is tilled and loosened, seeds tucked nicely under a shallow layer of rich black soil as the warm sun begins to dry the dirt. You begin attaching the hose to give those little seedlings a needed drink, when your next door neighbor storms up to the fence and demands, “Turn that hose off!” “What? Why? These seedlings will die without water,” You gasp.
Sound absurd? That is exactly what Farr West City and Planning Commission have been doing to the WISCO brick company. By authority of their City ordinances, the City/Planning Commission is dictating what WISCO must do before it can run a business. Are they justified in their demands? Where does the City rightly have authority to regulate business? Just because the City has ordinances, doesn’t make the ordinances appropriate. There are, unfortunately, bad ordinances as well as good ones.
Let’s go back to our gardening scenario. Are the seeds planted on your neighbor’s property? Will the vines extend into his yard when fully grown? Will the beans attract dangerous wild insects and animals? Will there be hoards of people crossing his lawn to see your award winning beans later in the summer? And last of all did you hook the hose up to his water spicket? If the answer to these questions is ‘NO’, then doesn’t it seem appropriate for you to turn on the water and go to work?
Now back to Farr West. Generally Farr West City has been friendly to businesses with the influence of Mayor Jimmie Papageorge and others like him, but it is the trend of almost every city to want to control their business neighbors. When are regulations by the city appropriate? I suggest that whenever a business wants to apply for a service that is provided by the city, then the city has some reason to require the business to comply with the appropriate standards equally with others. For example, if a business wants to hook on to the city water, then it should abide the law to not connect a secondary water supply to the drinking water or any other harmful practice and it should pay the monthly fee. Or if a business wants to create a new access onto a public road, then it should follow regulated procedures to maintain safety of other travelers.
However, if a business is having no impact on a city service, then the city has no right to dictate what’s happening on that private property. Like Farr West City requiring WISCO to build a fence, when both property owners affected don’t want it. In my opinion when a city dictates where and how many trees or shrubs are planted, they have grossly overstepped their bounds. When a city requires a business license, it is little different than your neighbor requiring that you pay him a fee each year before you start your garden. The City has every right to regulate the services that it provides—not to require you to use those services, but allow you to use them on equal terms with other members of that city.
If our cities will evaluate their ordinances based on how we should treat our neighbors, I believe many of the bad ordinances will gradually disappear. We will return to a more free and friendly society.
