No repeal for zoning

Dear Editor:

In a recent letter to the editor, George Farnham said, “If zoning ever evolved to be something that the voters felt was not working, the anti-zoners can approach the commissioners to have the ordinance repealed. In the alternative, they could collect the signatures of 800 voters and place the issue on the ballot.”

This is just not true. Nowhere in the ordinance does it allow for the citizens to collect signatures to place a question on the ballot to repeal this ordinance. Mr. Farnham is confusing this with future restrictions that the commissioners will surely add to the ordinance. The voters can collect signatures to challenge changes made to the ordinance, but they cannot collect signatures to have the entire ordinance repealed. Once we get it, we’re stuck with it.

Another error is that the total number of signatures of registered voters that would need to be collected is not 800, but closer to 1,100. I checked this with the nice lady down at the courthouse in the voter registration section. These 1,100 signatures would need to be collected in just 90 days, and, as I said, they cannot be used to repeal the ordinance, just to challenge changes.

The moral of this story is that if we approve zoning in its present form, it is very unlikely that we will ever be able to get rid of it.

James Dupont