The By-Law That Swayed The Vote In The Mid 60s On Zoning

Hi All,

Well, the weather sure has turned sour on us and it would appear that the only way we will be able to view the foliage is close-up. Fortunately, Mike Cain took a photo from the top of Main Hill in the village this past Sunday and it is easy to see why so many photos are taken from there.

As I was looking at the photo, I noticed the lawn at the Old Alderman House on the left is all landscaped now. That lawn, I would say, has to be the hardest lawn in the Town of Fairfax to mow. Different things over the years have been done over the years to overcome the problem. Some people that have lived there just gave up and didn’t bother mowing it.

One lady who lived there was a widow and had a couple of daughters, if I remember right. I don’t remember the name, and even if I did, don’t think it would be appropriate to mention it. She resolved the situation by putting some sheep fence around the lawn and bought some sheep and they took care of the mowing. This was back in the mid 1960s. It caused a lot of bickering, hate and discontent among some of the people in town.

Now this was also about the time that Zoning was introduced here in town. Zoning, to say the least, was not well accepted here in town, even though it was voted on and passed. I remember going to the meetings where the Zoning by-laws were being written and naturally, everyone had a particular piece that benefited them that they wanted in the by-laws.

One particular by-law that was put in, and I don’t know how many years it stayed there, or it might still be there was: “Animals will not be permitted to graze on resident’s lawns”, or something very similar to that.

Now when the Zoning was put to a vote, it was not expected to pass, because of the very strong feelings of our staunch old Vermonters here in town that had no desire whatsoever to be told what they could do with their property. I believe the by-law “Animals will not be permitted to graze on resident’s lawns” had a big effect on Zoning passing on the first vote here in Fairfax.

Check out Mike Cain's Picture Of The Day at:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7krm0/

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