Bill Truesdell said:

> In a specific juristiction, any use of the land is either
> permitted by law or not. For example, beekeeping can be
> restricted by law even in an agricultural zone as can be
> pig raising, poultry, etc

Bill sits (or sat) on a zoning board in Maine, so he may know
differently, but I have not heard of any case in the USA where
beekeeping was restricted in an area zoned "agricultural".
The problems appear to be in areas within municipal limits and
in adjacent suburban areas zoned "residential".

> The nuisance aspect comes in when a use is challenged. Most
> land use codes will not allow a nuisance or will put limits
> on it so the nuisance is reduced.

It is much more simple than that. The basic premise of zoning
involves the use of regulatory bulldozers to shove problems
into someone else's back yard.

Given the above, the trick to "urban/suburban beekeeping" appears
to be to avoid being perceived as "a problem" in the first place.
Ohio has an excellent "Good Neighbor Policy", a set of guidelines
for beekeepers that is also a prerequisite for getting the Ohio
State Beekeepers Association to "stand behind" an embattled beekeeper.

In the few "zoning issues" that have cropped up in our local
community since "zoning" was adopted, there was an early
and consistent pattern of clumsy arrogance born of ignorance.
After being consistently overruled by the local circuit court
in straight sets, the zoning board learned to base their rulings
on verified facts, rather than on the unverified arguments presented
at hearings.  The amazing thing is that it took multiple court rulings
contradicting the zoning board for them to get a clue.

I see this same pattern in the Aurora, CO case, where fiction and
myth promulgated by a small number of bee-phobic people were given
equal weight with accurate statements offered by beekeepers.  How
any city council or zoning board could presume to "decide" on a
"technical" issue without consulting subject-matter experts confounds me.

In the case of bees, one would expect that an agricultural extension
representative or professor of entomology could be asked to review
statements and separate fact from fiction.  While anyone with expertise
in the field would be more inclined to view honey bees fondly,
enlightenment is often linked to education and credentials.  :)

I think it would be hard to find anyone with a degree in either entomology
or agriculture who would define honey bees as even a potential problem
in a "residential" area.

> The way to win beekeeping battles is more with public opinion and large
> crowds at the meeting where such laws are put forward. Politicians and
> Board members listen to groups but not to the solitary beekeeper.

Sad that Maine is still governed by "mob-ocracy".
How often do the mobs roam the streets?  :)

Sure, a "mob" is great, but only if you are smart enough to convince
the media to show up and report on the mob's opposition.  Invisibility
most often means irrelevance, and the typical zoning board (a clique of
wannabes with dreams of running for school board next year, toiling in
well-deserved obscurity) knows that a local reporter is the only power
that can hold them accountable.

But nothing beats the calmly-made statement that one's opponents are
blatantly lying combined with a formal demand for an impartial expert
to review the main points of each side of the argument.

In the USA, the 5th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the
government from "taking private property" without "just compensation".
There is a substantial body of case law that have defined restrictions
on land use as a "taking", subject to the control of 5th Amendment.
While beekeeping is invariably a "hobby" in the suburbs, there is always
a "loss of income" aspect to any restriction of beekeeping, which implies
that lifetime compensation would be due all beekeepers subjected to
zoning restriction.  Time to read up on "net present value" and "internal
rate of return", kids.  How much honey, pollen and wax might you sell in
this lifetime?  :)

There is also the 14th Amendment, which guarantees "due process" and
"equal protection".  The most basic violation of "equal protection"
would be allowing unverified claims to become factors in a regulation.

So if one's zoning board rules poorly, they are easy to overturn at the
local courthouse, often conveniently located near the offices of the
zoning board.

Taking a longer view, "regime change" begins at home. :)
Vote early, vote often, and make sure that town hall employees, as well
as one's neighbors, never lack for honey.

        jim (who wants only his land, and all the land that adjoins it)

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