EDITORIAL: Delicate deliberation

Written by by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 08 February 2000 18:00

Details are still forthcoming, but the Hillsboro City Council may be facing its stickiest wicket in Details are still forthcoming, but the Hillsboro City Council may be facing its stickiest wicket in some time as it tries to figure out what to do with residents who operate backyard businesses that violate city zoning ordinances for residential properties. The presence of these renegade businesses—which could number near 50, according to one official’s estimate—is no sudden discovery. City Hall has been aware of most of them for a long time. Why the city chose to look the other way all these years isn’t clear. We imagine it probably had something to do with neighborliness and letting sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. Apparently in many cases, these business enterprises are nondescript, almost hidden from public evidence, and cause little or no problems for neighbors and other citizens. A few complaints have trickled in from time to time, but no one complained aggressively...until recently. It now seems that complaints regarding at least one enterprise have increased in recent months, prompting the city to confront the offending owner/operator of the enterprise. That person, we have been told, has counter-complained that the city is discriminating against his business while turning a blind eye toward dozens of others, and he says that isn’t fair. Well, this person is right. It isn’t fair. At the same time, though, some renegade enterprises are more... offensive...than others. So it also doesn’t seem fair that one blanket ordinance should be applied equally in all cases. In hindsight, we wish the city had been more diligent in the past about enforcing the ordinance on this issue. Doing so could have saved the hassle that seems to loom on the horizon. But that is water under the bridge. The council will have to start paddling from far down the river and hope they can avoid hard feelings...or worse. This is a plea for level heads, for patience, and for a determination to find solutions that will serve the good of the majority. That includes those folks who sit in the seats of power, as well as those who find themselves, knowingly or unknowingly, in clear violation of public policy.