“If someone else controls your private property, you do not own it.” – Skip Murphy. Six days ago, Steve had this post concerning the trouble that Stephen Forster (Forster’s Christmas Tree Farm) is in with the local zoning members concerning the way he wishes to use his own property (to hold weddings as “Agro-Tourism”, a perfectly legal use of his private property with respect to State law). He asked, in that post, that you go support Stephen keep his innate freedom to use his own land for his own purposes. Well, a bunch of people showed up with their virtual flashlights to show their support – and made the Henniker Zoning Board rather uncomfortable. You see, when we, the citizens, hold elected and unelected officials to account, they become very uncomfortable – they hate being held to account for things that they are not allowed to do. Here is the message from Ken concerning that meeting (emphasis mine):
Dear Friends,
Here is a link (at GovernmentOversite) to the Henniker Zoning Board meeting on Nov. 15th — and I urge you to watch and pass it onto others.
[Note from Skip – watch the closeups very carefully; see how uncomfortable they are, knowing that they are being watched because of their actions?]
Why? Because it represents the type of attack on our property rights that will be coming from elected people that don’t respect our Constitution — but have unfortunately been empowered to make decisions as to what we can and can’t do on our property.
As you view this video, you will find that it is painful to listen to the Zoning Board search for a reason to justify how they can place a restriction on Steve Forster regarding the usage of his farm property. The board’s struggle occurs after it is clear they agree that holding weddings on a farm (the issue at hand) is considered to be agri-tourism… and that agri-tourism is included in the definition of agriculture. The board also agreed that the practice of agriculture is allowed on a farm under state statute.
So where is the problem you ask? They wanted to overturn the citation that was issued — which threatened fines if Mr. Forster held any events, but at the same time… they wanted to attach restrictions even though the activity in question has been occurring on Mr. Forster’s farm since the early 80’s.