Lawrence Journal-World opinion section

To the editor:

I read with some amazement that the City Commission is going to consider new zoning guidelines that would allow goats and sheep to be raised within the city limits.  Further, the proposed guidelines would allow the sale of homegrown goods at residences.

There are very good reasons for most zoning restrictions. One of the most important is to protect individual homeowners from invasive nuisance activity by other people. I can speak as an expert when I say that nothing, and I mean nothing, on God’s green earth smells like goat dung that has been baking in a hot summer sun. Sheep dung is not quite so bad, but sheep themselves are exceptionally smelly because of the sour lanolin that their sebaceous glands pump into their wool.

Why is it a zoning violation for someone to run a small business out of their home, arguably because of parking congestion, when it would be fine for mom-and-pop butcher/vegetable markets to do the same thing?

This is not the 18th century any longer. If you want to live in a rural area, grow your own food and make your own clothes, go right ahead.