Planning Board Vetting Appointees’ Ideology On Zoning
Tamworth Planning Board chairman Dom Bergen and his colleagues are ramping up for another go at zoning in Tamworth. In interviewing applicants to be appointed to a vacancy on the Planning Board, Bergen stated that the “Master Plan” is taking them in the direction of zoning, and as part of their vetting of applicants, asked each what their opinions on zoning would be if they were to be so chosen to be voting members on the Planning Board.
As if the land use controls they already have in place via the TWCO haven’t given them enough free reign, the Planning Board and other government-control types in town are looking for you to come beg them for their permission to start a business on your property, build a home for the in-laws, or to be able to raise a few chickens depending upon what “zone” or another you’re in. Even if the Planning Board had the nicest, most reasonable, liberty loving members on it, implementing laws that are dependent upon the niceness and reasonableness of a select few or “the will of the people” is never a healthy path to go down. And that is just the path Dom Bergen and his colleagues appear to be interested in taking Tamworth down.
On the bright side of things, New Hampshire is one of the few states that still has towns without such onerous land use controls in place, and Tamworth is only one of a handful of towns in New Hampshire not to have comprehensive zoning. It would be a shame to see that distinction be taken away in favor of more government control of private property.