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Warning: my question at a city council meeting got a very surprising answer
Last Tuesday at our local town hall, I asked why the new park benches were being placed so far from the walking path. The council member said they were following an old rule about 'green space buffers' from a 1990s planning guide. Has anyone else gotten a weirdly specific answer to a simple question in public?
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troythompson1mo ago
Got a zoning rule explained to me once for a missing stop sign.
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henry6041mo ago
Yeah, the "zoning rule for a missing stop sign" thing hits home. I read about a town where they couldn't just put up a new sign at a bad corner. Because it was in a historic district, any change like that needed a full review for "visual impact" first. So the process to make things safer got stuck arguing about streetlight styles and signpost materials for months. It's wild how rules meant to protect one thing can totally block a simple fix for something else.
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vera_campbell1mo ago
Totally, that "full review for visual impact" part is exactly it. My old neighborhood had the same problem with speed bumps. People kept complaining about cars going too fast, but the historic commission said standard asphalt bumps would "ruin the street's character." They spent almost a year looking at special brick ones that cost way more, so nothing got done. It feels like the rule itself becomes the problem after a while.
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