Zoning laws

I wrote this a few years ago, after moving to Beloit from Cary, Illinois. Somehow, I thought moving out here would allow more freedom. Silly me.

Zoning laws and Freedom

By

Charles A. Kuecker

03/28/06


I have in front of me an incomplete copy of the “Town of Beloit General Zoning Ordinance”, revised, and adopted August 5th, 2002.

In reading this document, I am struck by how far we have strayed from the visions our founders had for the way people live in this country.

Almost every aspect of life is regulated through this document. I am particularly concerned about the rules for agricultural land. The law has essentially made illegal the traditional family farm through rigid rules and definitions that seem to have been copied verbatim from some master document without any regard to the effect they will have on the community.

Following these rules, our country will never again see a traditional farmhouse, or a true Victorian “painted lady”, or a barn constructed by traditional methods. All of these have been outlawed in various ways.

It is illegal to open a small business on your property and “hang a shingle” letting your neighbors know that you are open for business – these activities now require a separate building in an area zoned for that purpose. Never again will we see a craftsman making furniture or an artist painting in their homes – because it violates the letter of the law.

It is illegal to have a second dwelling on your property in agricultural zoned areas. Say goodbye to a “mother in law” house, or giving your newlywed child a home on the family farm, so they can help out and preserve the farm.

It is illegal to have any employee on an agricultural plot, if the employee lives on site. You are prohibited by law from having a live-in nurse, farmhand, groundskeeper, or anyone else that might enable an elderly farmer to continue farming, or even living, on his own property.

It is illegal to store any “goods” for a “home occupation” on the property. One cannot pursue any trade that would produce a product, regardless of whether it would affect the quality of life in the neighborhood.

It is illegal to have a second story, or loft, over a garage, or to have an “accessory building” (read, barn) with a hayloft.

One cannot erect an antenna tower – such as used by radio amateurs – without first obtaining permission from the Town Board – who can refuse such permission as they feel fit. Simply stating rules for setbacks and maximum height is not enough – more control is required.

It is illegal under the law to post a political campaign sign in your front yard, again without a written permit from the Town Board. What ever happened to freedom of speech and our right to engage in political discussion?

A catch-all provision – Section 2.03 B 3 – prohibits “Undesirable Objects or Structures” – which directly prohibits a child’s tree house or playhouse, personal auto repairs if they cannot be performed within a garage, and anything else that the Town Board decides not to enjoy seeing. This gives those in power carte blanche to lord it over the people whom they should be responsible to, in any way that they see fit. In particular, this clause gives those in power a huge stick to quell political dissent, lest the dissenters be found in violation of this clause and fined, or imprisoned.

It is interesting to me that this document is rife with improper references – a Xeroxed copy of a list of amendments refers to sections that do not exist in the copy of the ordinance provided to us, and many things mentioned in the ordinance are not present – such as maps and included tables. The document is not available on-line, although the Town of Beloit has a beautiful web page describing the beauty of a housing development that was undertaken by the Town of Beloit without proper authorization by the people – a development that has lost the Town much money, and resulted in a lawsuit by some of the people supposedly served by the Town. The lawsuit was, of course, defended against using tax money – and the plaintiffs were ultimately bankrupted in their effort, as might be expected.

Since this document is not openly published on-line, it is impossible for citizens to read and understand it unless they go to the Town offices during business hours to purchase a copy. The Town of Beloit has not seen fit to provide a copy of the law to the local library – as any prudent person would expect them to do.

This last fall, an officer of the Town Board – charged with ferreting out violations of the ordinances, visited our property and issued a warning notice because we had several collector vehicles parked off a driveway, behind a garage – out of the public view – but illegal by the letter of the law that requires a “hard parking surface”. The officer bragged to my wife of issuing “over 400” tickets for violations – each of which would result in a fine of at least $100 for the property owner if not corrected in short order.

One neighbor has 10 acres of land, zoned agricultural, and was told he cannot keep “construction equipment” on his property, even though he runs a construction contracting business and was using the machinery on the property. None of his neighbors have ever raised an objection about this storage – but it’s against the letter of the law.

Another neighbor got a ticket for parking their own vehicle next to their driveway with a For Sale sign showing – because the car was resting on grass, not on the driveway. This was not a case of a pickup truck on blocks in weeds three feet high – this was a clean vehicle being sold by it’s owner – but again, in violation of the letter of the law.

Other neighbors were prosecuted for having a small two-wheel trailer, because it had no license plate – which is not required under Wisconsin law – parked on the grass next to their garage. I have a similar trailer I kept parked behind my garage – on the grass – next to that collector car I mentioned earlier. The enforcement officer neglected to mention it in his warning letter.

In my opinion, zoning laws are much abused and overweening in their scope, and a serious effort should be made to trim them back to the minimum required to preserve the quality of life in our community.