Problem or Solution?

Problem or Solution?


It has the appearance of a denuded moonscape.  There is no vegetation anywhere to be seen but there are clumps of quadrupeds scattered here and there.  The thought slips through the mind, “I wonder what these creatures eat.”  If one observes long enough he will see a lumbering vehicle creep across the barren land to deposit tons of a feed mixture into large troughs and the quadrupeds will rush to the troughs to gain a spot for the only natural activity of the day.  Eating a mixture of food, antibiotics and hormones calculated to make them gain weight artificially fast in order to fulfill their destiny.  Your dinner table.

There is a barn near the road that passes along the upper edge of this muddy, naked property.  It only serves to handle the incoming and outgoing animals destined for another equally barren place.  It is not large enough to provide any kind of shelter from the elements or a dry place in which to lie down.  As you look over the land as it falls toward a small ravine you will notice a small flat spot that curiously seems out of place.  As you follow the eye down into the ravine there is another similar spot but there is a bit of water standing in this one.  It becomes apparent that the flat spots are the remnants of ponds that once held water for the animals but now are silted to the top with the soil that has washed from the rootless land carrying with it all of the various byproducts deposited there.  This would be great soil for growing something edible wouldn’t it?  Then the remembrance of the antibiotics and hormones that have been part of the animals’ diet denies the propriety of that thought.  Just down from the last flat spot is the small stream that has carved the ravine.  It travels perhaps half a mile until it joins Pitman Creek which, in turn, travels several miles and discharges into Lake Cumberland just above the intake for the plant that provides the drinking water for the entire surrounding multi-county area.

Across the road from this desolate place are several nice houses, some with children that would like to play in the yard but it is rarely that you see people outside these houses enjoying the rural nature of their homes.  Why?  Is it because of the stench that arises like a cloud from the place across the road anytime the temperature is above freezing?  Is it because of the pestilence of flies doing what flies do in temperature weather?  Either of these answers will suffice.

Please excuse my attempt at a literary description of what this place is.  It is something that a lot of people will recognize but to which they will give little thought.  It is a feedlot and it is nearly the beginning of the piece of meat that graces your dinner table. But the quality of and threats to the eaters of that meat are not what I want to speak of right now although we should be very concerned about that.

The houses across the road were there before this former farm was converted into the waste dump that it is.  Cattle were raised there in a more natural setting and it never crossed the minds of those who built those houses that such a drastic change would occur.  Those homes are now practically unsellable and their value has taken a big hit.  The home is usually the biggest investment most people make and the value of these people’s investments has been stricken.  Without taking a hit on their investment these people are stuck here and may not have the financial ability to just pack up and leave.
This is what planning and zoning is designed to prevent.  Planning and zoning is designed to give some assurance to investors in the American Dream that their investment and their families will not be subjected to conditions that they had no way of foreseeing.  It does not have to be a feedlot that threatens your investment.  It could be anything that will negatively affect the value of your property.  Whatever you can imagine is possible without these regulations.

We used to have the room to allow people to do whatever they wished with their properties regardless of the effect on the neighbors.  Some practices now have become so intensive that those types of regulations are just not adequate.  The public safety and welfare is at risk.  Our current county administration has gone on record as being opposed to planning and zoning.  That is a position that, in my opinion, is shortsighted and misguided.  However, I have hope that it is a position that can be changed if it is the will of the people of the county.

This is an issue for which citizens should be concerned about the general welfare rather than personal interest.  The reasons I have enumerated are not the only reasons for planning and zoning but they point out some ways we can begin to address the problem.

Just one of my takes on planning and zoning.