Like clockwork, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners took public comment from dozens of persons opposed to countywide zoning and approved the amended ordinance, anyway. Comments included typical complaints about investing large sums of money in land only to find 5/7 of it is unbuildable; the only place to put a wood shed is on top of the house; poor people buy manufactured housing because they’re poor, but zoning added $15,000 to the cost of one house; and sums of money were invested in complying with one arbitrary zoning that is now changed to another. It was argued that zoning only hurts the poor who can’t pay for adjustments or rezonings. Mike Fryar brought in a zoning sign to show how small the lettering was, and then compared it to lettering on campaign signs of the commissioners which he also brought in but didn’t want to show on the camera. Several referred to the state and federal constitutions and oaths of office, even reading portions. Citizens complained the government was not listening to them. One man spelled out the pecking order: God created people, people created the Constitution, and the Constitution created government. Only four people said they liked zoning, and they said they wanted strong ordinances. A second reading is likely to be held without further public comment December 1.

. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.