SG-W:/ cashing out

[Matthew G Kerwin <mgkerwin@juno.com>]

"Ag is the only zoning category where everyone seems to think it's ok to
sell 
off the business and convert it. Think about it: if every piece of land
is 
going to be sold by a farmer and converted so he/she can retire, there
will 
be nothing left. They certainly can sell it, but why should the purchaser

automatically get to convert the zoning?" -- Tina 

Wow!  Tina's full message, the above being her central point, was
powerful.

What laws allow -- even encourage -- this rezoning?  Will writing our
representatives in the legislature about changing the laws do any good?

Can you imagine going into a well-to-do neighborhood, buying up the
remaining available acres, and successfully suing the local government
for refusing to rezone it industrial. (In poor neighborhoods, of course,
the government might collude with you to condemn the neighborhood so as
to convert it to industrial use.)

Several moral and thus uncivil points:

All the land in Michigan was stolen from indigenous people and converted
for our ancestors use.  Our ancestors thus got the land at a slight
fraction of its value as the conversion was subsidized by the U.S.
Military.  Current possession of the land gives us the right to use it to
make a living (through agriculture or as a location for non-farm
business) or to use it as a place to live.  We have no right to profit
from the sale of the land (speculation).  All profits on the land itself
(not the "improvements") should be turned over to the government for
distribution to the heirs of the original (and rightful) owners. 
Probably, a portion of the property taxes should be distributed to
American Indian tribes as rent.  

Another point of view (not recognized in civil law -- only in moral law):
we do not own the land, we hold it in trust for the community.  We pay a
transfer fee to the previous trustee when we "buy" the land.  The
increase in the fee from one trustee to another can not be tied to a
supposed increase in the value of the land; it can only be increased at a
rate no greater than the general rate of monetary inflation.  As the
community actually owns the land, the community has a right and duty to
place restrictions (unrelated to personal morality) on the type of use of
the land.  

Zoning laws reflect the "Common Good" concept expressed in the
Constitution.  Why is it many who so avidly promote laws related to
personal morality (a misreading of the Common Good), believe that the
Common Good can't be applied to land and business issues?

Anyhow, what can we realistically ask the legislature for in changes to
current land use laws so as to allow townships to better fight sprawl?  

Matthew Kerwin
Newsletter Editor, Southeast Michigan Naturists
Liaison, Michigan Nude Beach Advocates


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