Wednesday, June 06, 2012

City Permits and Property Ownership


I really don't fit in in this world at all. I went to a City Council meeting yesterday. They had a public hearing about some changes to the zoning ordinances. As we all browbeat the council, I was reflecting, internally, that we were arguing the wrong issue.

It isn't the changes, it's the EXISTENCE of the zoning ordinances. What gives the city the right to make me ask "Mother, may I?" for ANYth...ing I want to do on MY property?! How have we been so complacent as to allow our "public SERVANTS" to dictate whether we can have a fence, a garden, a shed or anything else on the property WE OWN?

It isn't that Townsend, MT is any different than Helena, Bozeman, West Yellowstone or White Sulphur Springs. It's that, somehow, we have surrendered our private property rights to the government. It's wrong and now it's too late. I could go on and on but it doesn't make any difference. I think I'm the only one who thinks this is not right and I guess I should just shut up about it and learn to go along.


When you think about it, real property is actually the embodiment of socialism in our country.  All real property is owned by the state (government) and we just are allowed limitted use of it as long as we keep up the rent payments.  Try not paying your taxes (Rent to the state) for a while.  You'll get evicted.  The city tells us what we can and can't do on our own property and we go blissfully on, with the illusion of freedom.   And, there's nothing we can do about it now.  It's such an accepted situation that no one is going to get it changed, even if we wanted to try. 

When the city clerk was talking about permit charges yesterday, it was all i could do to keep my mouth shut.  What value do I get for paying a fee to the city so that I can put a shed on my property?  If I burned that money, I'd at least get a little heat out of it.  More leeching off of the populous by the government.  And so many people can't see why I'm so indignant about it.  Fees to the government...nothing new and won't be changed.

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