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Originally Posted by lurker  .....Can you copy the editorial on this thread? |
No due process, no development plan, no problem
My Opinion
Lowell A. Brakey
I owe the Citizens of Ford County an apology. In 1996 and 1997, as a member of a County-appointed committee, I went around with other committee members and met with feedyards, businesses, farmers, ranchers and concerned citizens about the virtues of County Wide Zoning. We told them how Zoning could protect them against developers that might not want to ask “May I build here?” Further, those landowners would be afforded safeguards against developments and/or businesses being built without the proper questions being answered, lawful due process and an approved development plan.
On Nov. 27 and Dec. 18, I discovered that those regulations we urged the citizens of Ford County to adopt were not for everyone and that under the title of “economic development” the regulations can be ignored and lawful due process denied the landowners surrounding a new development. I refer to the ethanol plant that is proposed for one mile east of Wright.
None of the 12 people that signed the protest petition were against ethanol production. The other 229 people that live around this site and who signed another petition just wanted the opportunity to read and study a development plan to answer their questions, as was promised them by Article 12 of the Zoning Regulations. They were asking that due process be followed, that they be afforded rights that they were promised and that became law back in 1997. That is why they hired me as a consultant, as they were aware of the fact that I had been an advocate and one of the authors of our current zoning and subdivision regulations. Idealistically, I believed that the Zoning Board and the County Commission would follow legally established regulations.
On Nov. 27 the Ford County Zoning Board voted to recommend approval of the Conditional Use Permit request even though there had not been a properly signed application submitted on time, as required along with a development plan, as required by law. Publication in the newspaper told everyone interested that the development plan was on hand with a properly filled out application. This was not true.
A document was finally submitted on Nov. 20, seven days before the Zoning Board public hearing, titled a “development plan,” but this did not meet the requirements of a development plan as required under Article 12-103 of the Zoning Regulations. It was too little, too late. Citizens had read the public hearing notice in the newspaper or had been notified by registered mail of the file being complete. They had come and gone from the Zoning Office asking to see the development plan and there had been no signed application or development plan to see and review.
On Dec. 18, this same case came before the Ford County Commission. The County Commission admitted that the application had not been signed at the time required and that the so-called development plan, which was still incomplete, was only submitted on Nov. 20. Legal counsel for the County Commission informed the commissioners that the plain language used did not mean what it clearly said.
Article 12-102; 2- states: “The Development Plan shall be submitted at the time the application is submitted and no application shall be deemed complete nor set for public hearing until said Development Plan is submitted.”
Article 12-101 plainly states: “Said Development Plan is a required submission when seeking a Conditional Use Permit.”
We all heard the County Counselor inform us that the word “shall” can be interpreted to mean “may” and that this was his legal interpretation. The County Commission accepted Mr. Kerb’s opinion on the matter even with an opposite opinion being submitted by Jack Shultz, another attorney, which is completely supported by the above-quoted sections of the zoning law.
What does this mean? If the law can be ignored once by elected and appointed public officials, they can be ignored again at their whim. The Zoning Office and the Zoning Board now believe that they can get away with this and the County Commission will support their action. What is to stop them from doing this again? All certain investors have to do is brandish enough money by using the term “economic development” and your rights and my rights mean nothing in Ford County when it comes to land use issues.
We are sending a message that the law in Ford County is not binding on those to whom our elected and appointed officials decide to extend special favors to at the expense of the rights of the rest of us. I can remember being taught that “People get the government they deserve.” My opinion is that we deserve better.