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If at first you don’t succeed act like an adult

Everybody has dreams, and sometimes those dreams take the shape of development on rural land.

Everybody has dreams, and sometimes those dreams take the shape of development on rural land. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about securing approval for the development and losing your ability to act like an adult is not on the approved list.

Change is inevitable but tempers and concerns tend to flare when it comes to non-agricultural development on ag land.

Sometimes these concerns are warranted, as there’s an appropriate place for everything and agricultural land populated by livestock is not always that place. Other times it’s simple bullheadedness of those unwilling to yield for anything.

Having been in the community newspaper business for over four years I’ve seen my share of rezoning applications and public hearings. Some are executed perfectly and receive wonderful community support and others, one cannot help but shake their head at the mess applicants make for themselves.

Getting a development approved takes so many moving parts: permits, rezoning studies, area structure plans to name a few. A successful applicant told me once, “You walk through it, you don’t race through it.”

He’d been working on his dream for 20 years until he found the perfect spot to build it.

Not everyone takes the time to follow procedures and bylaws properly, which is unfathomable. If you have invested time, money and other resources to something you’re calling a dream you should at least have the brains to do things properly, construct a solid foundation for the project and increase chances of success.

So often when you see people losing ground they bring up the children; either theirs or those of the community who desperately need said project to keep them honest and off the streets.

Sometimes, even with the best laid plans, a development just isn’t appropriate for the land in question. It at those times county councils and neighbours can really see who they’re dealing with.

Crocodile tears, cursing, harassment, appeals, the list goes on.

If it was really for the children, grace in the face of disappointment will teach them more than any fancy development ever could.

Amelia Naismith is the reporter/photographer for the Pipestone Flyer and writes a regular column for the paper.