Zoned Out Of Business
In Ventura, the local government is using arcane building and zoning code laws to shut businesses down:
"We're from the government and we're here to bend you over and fuck you."
..."For no good reason except that we can."
Via reason.tv, from the video written and produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Alex Manning, Tracy Oppenheimer, and Weissmueller. An excerpt from the writeup on YouTube:
"If there isn't someone complaining, and there isn't really a serious public health and safety issue, why do they spend so much of their time pursuing these kinds of cases?" asks Lynne Jensen, executive director of the Ventura County Coalition of Labor and Business (COLAB).Tom Wolf owns the Pine Mountain Inn, a restaurant that's been serving biker groups and local community organizations since the 1930s. Wolf temporarily had to shut the doors when he suffered a heart attack in 2002, and he was never able to reopen when the county informed him that his property had been rezoned as an "Open Space" back in the 1980s without his knowledge.
"[The county] wanted everybody out of here," says Wolf. "And they wanted a complete open space with nothing but deer and frogs... and no people."
No matter how hard Wolf tried to comply with the ever-changing codes, the county just wouldn't relent, at one time even ordering him to remove a chicken coop that had never actually existed on the property.
Wolf isn't alone, says Jensen. Several other small businesses along Highway 33 have been hit by multiple county agencies for no apparent reason.
"They had every department hit us with violations to make sure that they shut us down," says April Hope, who, along with her husband Bob, owns a bed and breakfast called The Wheel, which has existed in the area since the 1890s.
What is this really about? Eminent domain -- legalized stealing of private property by the government:
"This rezoning is really a way to get around eminent domain, because eminent domain means you give up your entire property. And here, you only give up part of your rights," says Jensen.Invoking eminent domain to seize private property would not only require the county to compensate landowners, but also to demonstrate that the taking served a "public use."
"They have been very successful in taking people's property in a number of different ways without compensation as long as they don't take ownership of it," says Jensen.
Rezoning to steal property. Wow.
The only logical solution to this, it seems to me, is to bar retroactive rezoning. If it was OK when it was built, and as long as it remains open property with a valid business license (the cost of which should also be grandfathered) the area cannot be rezoned without the consent of 9/10ths of the area.
Robert at May 30, 2012 1:40 PM
I don't see how people can live in CA. It's become like East Germany. Moonbeam as governor.
Stinky the Clown at May 30, 2012 5:06 PM
This effort to stop businesses from starting and to remove people from their land is simply Agenda 21. Look on a Agenda 21 map of the United States and I bet you the area in question is a restricted "no people" area.
Dragonslayer666 at May 30, 2012 5:46 PM
If I were the owner, free & clear, of one of these properties I'd drop all insurance on the property, burn everything down to bare earth in my property line. Then have the earth turned to bury it all. After that I would put up a 12 inch wooden fence six inches inside the property line. Then I would see how much salt I could inside that fence.
Let the county figure out how to come after me for that.
When a thing is cursed, you are supposed to burn it, bury it and salt the earth. The county cursed my property so I'm just taking care it in the proper manner. Oh and numerous no trespassing signs.
Jim P. at May 30, 2012 7:12 PM
I wonder what Ventura County is going to do after it has rezoned its entire business tax base into neighboring counties.
Idiots.
mpetrie98 at May 30, 2012 10:15 PM
So what did these county agencies do after rezoning it and probably driving the businesses away? Did the council people then sell the land to some industry and pocket the money for themselves? That is what politicians normally do in Asia and the Middle East...grab land and sell it at insanely high prices to industries and thereby make it to the richest people in the world list.
Redrajesh at May 31, 2012 10:15 AM
Let the county figure out how to come after me for that.
Let's see: arson, construction without proper permits, and pollution. Multiple counts of pollution: the salt, and the toxins released during your nefarious arson.
That's at least 20 years in prison.
I normally wouldn't advocate for violence as a first step, but tarring, feathering, and running the county commissioners out of the county on a rail would be a kindness...
I R A Darth Aggie at May 31, 2012 10:35 AM
"arson": In most locales they can only charge you with arson if you are trying to bilk someone for financial gain (i.e. insurance) or in relation to some other crime, such as concealing a murder, robbery or other criminal activity. If you empty the property to the bare walls (on video) and have no insurance, the prosecutor has no case.
Getting you on the EPA charges is a different story for the burning. If it was a "controlled" burn (i.e. backyard garbage burn) they really have no say in it. I've done it for years. Burning your building down is just a little larger. And I have burned down several outbuildings over the years that deputies have driven by, looked, and not stopped.
"construction without proper permits": I am out in a township, and I hope the rest of the country is like this. If I build anything that is not for habitation or connected to the residence, I don't need a permit. I could build an eight foot tall fence around every inch of my property and the state and township can't say shit.
"counts of pollution: the salt": Show me where in any code that I can't store salt on my property in any quantity? Salt is a naturally occurring substance. If they were to come after me for an EPA violation, I would counter sue for the Salt Springs Recreation Area and the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
Jim P. at May 31, 2012 9:14 PM
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