Beating a dead horse with taxpayer dollars

All writers in Op Ed are here to inform and acknowledge issues of importance to our communities, however these writings represent the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily of The Advertiser.

Why does Edgefield county keep beating a dead horse with taxpayer money? The citizens have made it clear we don’t want a LMO. A LMO is not required by South Carolina law. I understand the LMO is a combination of current ordinance and new zoning bundled in a nice tidy 376 page document. The truth is they wrapped a lot of new zoning, and God only knows what else, with the old ordinances and then asked the public for comment. Did they really expect citizens to read the 376 pages of lawyer talk? Only one on County Council admitted to having read the entire draft document. With so many new placements on the Planning Commission, I doubt any of them had time to read the entire document.

Well, we all know you can wrap a pile of dung in a nice package, but it is still a pile of dung. Truth is, if there hadn’t been so much dung in this package, citizens might not have smelled it in time. The fact is, it was a poorly written draft document that did not receive enough oversight  prior to releasing it to the public for review. The part about RV’s not being in your yard for more than 45 days had citizens readying for battle. Then the fact that three new RV storage units are currently being built only flamed those fires. Citizens realized the restrictions were so intense, that it regulated flag poles in size and number. Non-conformities that were grandfathered in would not be able to be repaired or replaced after 50% damage. When people realized in the RV zone that mobile homes were considered a non-conformity, matters just got worse.

 We feel this document was bundled deliberately to hide all the changes being made. All the new zoning that will give the government more control over private property rights were bundled with the old. God only knows what else is buried in this document that we haven’t found. Most people don’t have the time or fortitude to read it. Some of us farm folk read enough to find some bodies that were buried, but we still wonder what else is in there.

Don’t get me wrong, I know we need protection. For now Edgefield county it is time to bury that dead LMO horse. It stinks and the citizens are complaining. It is time for a funeral. Let’s have a pyre right on town square and put this LMO to bed once and for all.

Rhonda Nowicki

Email me at notothelmo@yahoo.com to join the movement.