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Letter To Editor
Editor Rappahannock News . Washington, Virginia, 22747
Subject: Stifle the Growth of a Middle Class
As a teacher of government charged with the responsibility for encouraging part cipation in local government, it becomes necessary to speak to the recent rulings directly aimed at stifling the growth of a significant middle class.
By definition, zoning is an interference with the right of ownership. When an owner of a property may use such property, consume it, give it away, exchange it - all as he wishes -- that is ownership. Zoning and owning are different systems of determining land use. Either the land will be privately owned and its use determined by the owner to his greatest satisfaction,, from the choices available to him in the market place, or the land will be used as directed by government.
It is easy to understand how some restrictions as to proper sanitation, electrical hook-up, distance from road, and other safety factors might be required by government for the good of all. It is easy to understand how an established business might be affecting of an unappropriate business nearby (hog pen next to an established restaurant). It is not easy to understand how a man might be prevented from purchasing a mobile home (which meets other state requirements) and properly setting such a home on a lot which he has worked many hours to obtain. This principle is extremely difficult to understand when many of those who demand a mobile home ordinance are operating tenant farm houses with far less sanitation facilities.
The question to be raised is: Is there a design on the part of a few to keep from Rappahannqck a significant growth in the middle class? With the middle class comes the concern and action that might destroy the pseudo-aristrocracy of ten percent who own ninety percent of the land. With the middle class comes the growing PTA, shopping centers, industrial complex (jobs),
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