There are two part of this story; the first started many years ago with the plan to move the city of Muskegon farmers market form the Jackson Hill neighborhood to downtown. It continued with the changes several years ago of the city of Muskegon zoning to allow community gardens as a use by right everywhere in the city. The second started this last week and is much much worse.
This spring, the plan to move the city farmers market finally got some steam behind it (it is moving next year); it is a great looking plan although there are a number of citizen and vendor concerns about the move that are largely being ignored. One of those concerns has been about moving the market out of the neighborhood and into a downtown, an area which many neighborhood residents do not feel is accessible to them. In response, the vice-mayor stated that this is not a neighborhood market but a regional one so the neighborhood should not be upset about losing it. In response to this, my wife and I submitted a business registration to the city to open a neighborhood market on a neighborhood business zoned piece of property that we own - that was April 1st, we are still in appeals - apparently no one is allowed to fill the neighborhood need if it competes with the city market. Interestingly enough, the same zoning rule (slight deferences but too complex to go into here) that they claim makes neighborhood markets illegal is in place in the downtown area that they are moving the city market to.
As part of that same registration paperwork, we also filed to register our farm. We hope this year for the first time to produce enough produce to be able to sell. We own 1.5 acres in the form of a half a dozen separate parcels in a neighborhood with a lot of vacant parcels where houses have been torn down. Interestingly, while building a brand new farmers market the city has said that no one is allowed to sell anything they grow in town anywhere. This is also still in appeals, especially since a number of community and non-profit gardens are openly selling produce and the city is allowing them to do so. So we are waiting for the legal system to be able to do what the law says we have a right to do. I will skip the nine part legal brief, but if you are interested, message me and I will give more details or a copy of the brief.
That is the simple part, and also the least objectionable part. The second part shows just how untouchable they think they are.
I am currently running for city commission. Last Wednesday (the 10th) was the first candidate forum during which I mentioned some of our city’s zoning issues. The following day I also spoke out at the planning commission meeting about the illegality of the procedure being used to move the city farmers market.
Thursday evening I got a visit from a Muskegon police officer, telling me that he had been ordered (by city administration not by police command) to ticket me on two things. First my farm truck, which they planned to impound (steal) under the city junk vehicle ordinance because it didn’t have a plate. Michigan no longer requires farm vehicles to carry plates or insurance so there is nothing illegal about it not having a plate, but I chose to get rid of it anyway since it was soon going to need some major work and is worth more as scrap metal. Second, that we were being ticketed for our goats. We have five goats (mostly miniature) that we keep fully in compliance with the four conditions under which city ordinance allows them (section 6-17(a) http://www.muskegon-mi.gov/...). Neither he nor the officer who delivered the ticket on Monday could tell me which of the conditions we are accused of not following (in fact one of them complimented how clean we kept their pen), but both said they had been ordered by city administration to cite ME. That is the other part- only I was ticketed, so either they are misogynist or they are after me specifically since the goats belong to the whole family. We have had the goats for over seven months and had no complaints or contact from the city up until this point.
This week we have received a notice about the car parked in our driveway (I moved it over the weekend so it wasn’t parked in the same place by the time we got the notice) claiming it was illegal because it was parked off of an approved driveway (something by the way not illegal as long as it is in the side yard which it is). We have had a car parked in that location for almost the entire two and a half years we have lived here (on a driveway slab that is older than I am).
To top it off, our local paper (not really local anymore, but as close as it gets) has had a reporter at every city meeting where I have addressed these issues and will not cover any of it- every comment but mine was reported on after the planning meeting about the new market. I have talked to others who say the city has a history of bullying candidates in order to stop them from actively campaigning, although I have no evidence on that.
And yet we wonder why people won’t get involved- our commissioners bemoan the lack of new faces in city government regularly. The only way this thing is going to stop here (or anywhere else, for that matter) is if people spread the word and make it clear to the city commission that this is not acceptable behavior. This kind of corruption spreads through ignorance. In Michigan at least we have a right to speak at public meetings; maybe if more of us use that three minutes and more of us get our friends and family out to vote, things can change.
Thu Jul 25, 2013 at 2:18 PM PT: I went in and filed the appeal for the ticket at which point they promptly showed up and gave me another one. Interesting since the fine would be the same way either way just more paperwork for everyone to try and slog through.