To the Editor of the Pocahontas Times

Norman's Note: Zoning is simply not the way to go about land regulation. Even the immigrants to Pocahontas County will reject zoning as a solution. See what happened in Berkeley County. People came to Pocahontas County to get away from zoning. They had the restrictions and the high cost of development of their land which is associated with zoning.
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Berkeley Zoning Defeated by Large Numbers
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 ; 06:00 AM | View Comments | Post Comment

11,241 votes were cast against zoning in the county's May 13 primary elections.

Story by Ann Ali

Note to West Virginia: Apple butter, a widened Route 9 and new schools are more than welcome in Berkeley County.

Zoning is not.

In the 2004 primary election, only 10,182 total voters took to the polls in Berkeley County. But this year,11,241 votes were cast against zoning in the county's May 13 primary elections, showing how the issue got under citizens' collars. The issue pulled voters to the polls to give a firm 'no' -- just 5,689 votes were cast for zoning -- for the third time in recent memory.

"The entity that got the most votes was anti-zoning," said Shepherd University political science Professor Hannah Geffert. "I think it'll be a long time before the issue is even brought up again -- it failed so completely."

The measure was about 200 pages, and not many voters could take the time to digest it.

And while Eastern Panhandle residents may express the desire to rein in sprawl, regulate properties and ensure services, the voters didn't think zoning was the way to do it.

The issue of zoning was first brought to Berkeley County's table in the late 1970s. It was soundly defeated. It came up again in 1996, meeting a similar two-to-one fate, and this week's primary election garnered the same result after three years of organization on the issue.

"It had a lot of problems with it," said Delegate Jonathan Miller, R-Berkeley. "Most notably, taxes would have increased dramatically ... and property rights was a big issue, too.

"Plus, the housing market is a major part of our local economy, and it's slowed down quite a bit."

Miller said big builders will outlast every regulation and high tax, but the smaller builders that are important to the Eastern Panhandle because they hire local people would have collapsed under a zoning regulation.

Local legislators already are gearing up to address the sentiments behind zoning in other ways.

"Even the people who were no-zoning are concerned about the proliferation of billboards and strip clubs that could end up in their neighborhoods -- things like that," said Delegate Craig Blair, R-Berkeley. "I'm not a big zoning fan. I think we can do a lot of these changes within the statute and West Virginia Code, and allow counties to enact ordinances for things like billboards.

"Our County Commission doesn't think the law is written well enough to hold up in court, and we've already got a team that is looking at some of this, to address some of that so the commissioners do have the tools they need."

Blair said zoning has not worked in most places in the United States, and it actually creates sprawl along with inflated property taxes.

"It's not too late to be able to effectively manage what we have here," he said. "Over three-quarters of the land that we have here right now is in farms and things like that -- all you have to do is fly over it -- and zoning would have only made it tighter."

Miller said while he was on the campaign trail last year, he talked to lots of residents who voiced their concerns about the county, then told him the County Commission's answers.

"People would say the commissioners told them they can't do this or that if they don't have zoning, and I'd say 'no, State Code says they can do this,'" he said. "They were hoping they were going to get it this time."

Geffert said the anti-zoning movement was a well-funded, vigorous campaign, and the area's landowners really rallied around the issue.

Miller said the recently enacted zoning laws in neighboring Jefferson County are part of the reason why Berkeley County is stuffed, and provided a perfect case study for Berkeley County voters -- natives and transplants both.

"Not only Jefferson County, but the outer counties in Maryland and Virginia that are nearby, there's greater zoning, and that has pushed a lot of people to Berkeley County," he said. "I think it's just such a major issue, and a lot of (new residents) have come from zoned communities, and that was something we didn't expect.

"We kind of anticipated the people who came from outside the state would vote for zoning, but they didn't. They came here to get away from it."

Blair said a subdivision straddles the Berkeley/Jefferson county line, and property taxes are about $300 more on the Jefferson County line -- just one thing area voters note and attribute to zoning.

"Often the voters come out and feel like they're voting for the lesser of two evils," Blair said. "I'm just a big one for putting some of these initiatives on the ballot so people feel like they have a say -- it's not always a popularity contest."

Miller said he's hopeful that legislators and county commissioners can work together for solutions.

"The people have spoken, and we all represent the same people, so they're all telling us the same thing."

Ok let's turn the tables: To Pam Pritt and Norman Alderman do either of you want Planning for our County's future? If you do, then please explain what it will encompass and how it will work? And if you don't, then tell me how this County is going to go forward with no articulated community concept and vision. What positive pro-active plan do either of you have?

With all due respect to your religious views, what plan do you propose? Am I to assume you are a laissez-faire man with absolutely no incentive for vision or community view? That "no hands driving" is dangerous to my mind. As a past teacher surely you must advocate the value of looking ahead and working now to realize future goals.

Marty, what is broken here? The battle of Save Sharp's Farm was a victory without zoning. Who knows the battle may well have been lost if we had zoning! That could have been a zoning board instead of a PSD they were fighting and guess who would have won, the ones with the most money!