Benefits of zoning

May 29, 2012

Washington, Iowa

To the Editor:

As a group who makes our livelihood in production agriculture in Washington County, we feel compelled to weigh in with respect to the land use and planning ordinance otherwise known as zoning. It appears that opponents of zoning are quite vocal. Please allow us to explain an alternative view.

While we almost always fall on the side of more freedom rather than less, well-written land use ordinances provide protections to property owners, and even taxpayers, that are valuable. Consider the following:

Farmers benefit from some level of protection from ?nuisance? lawsuits due to the fact that a residential community cannot easily be established next to existing farm operations.

Non-farming rural residents are protected from unwanted neighboring commercial/industrial uses, such as a cement plant or junk yard, that would degrade neighboring property value and greatly reduce enjoyment of our property.

Taxpayers in Washington County benefit from the fact that rural development will occur in logical locations that do not cause the county to spend exorbitant amounts of money in additional road maintenance, and are situated such that emergency vehicles can get there.

Further, rural land use ordinances provide some level of comfort for new businesses that may seek to locate in Washington County. Absence of known allowable land uses creates risk for any business seeking a new location. In a competitive business climate, details like this matter.

There also appears to be a number of misconceptions related to Washington County?s land use and planning ordinance. First, farmers are generally exempt from the land use restrictions. Second, hog confinements are regulated primarily by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and not by Washington County. Third, rural land use and planning rules do not impact residents in incorporated communities who, incidentally, have been subjected to their own city?s zoning laws for several decades.

It is human nature to not want to be told what we can, or cannot, do with our property. Nobody wants zoning until your neighbor seeks to do something you don?t like. If you should ever find yourself in such a situation, there cannot be enough zoning to protect you from the ?injustice? that would occur were your neighbor allowed to do something with their property that might negatively impact you. It is somewhere between the former feeling of independence, and the latter scenario of angst, that the county?s land use and planning ordinance seeks to balance.

Respectfully,

Jeff Cuddeback

Tye Rinner

Corey Malichky