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Title: Couple sues after town bans front-yard gardens
Source:
Yahoo
URL Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/couple-s ... nt-yard-gardens-181405934.html
Published: Jun 8, 2016
Author: Curt Anderson
Post Date: 2016-06-09 11:11:07 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 13797
Comments: 66
MIAMI (AP) — For 17 years, a South Florida couple grew vegetables in a front-yard garden until a new town ordinance was passed limiting such gardens to backyards. Now, the couple is asking a judge to uproot the ban they claim violates their constitutional rights. Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts say they dug up the garden in front of their Miami Shores home in August 2013 when town officials threatened to fine them $50 a day if they didn't. The threatened fine came a few months after the Miami Shores Village Council adopted a new zoning plan for the town of about 10,500 north of Miami. The couple sued, and at a hearing Wednesday their attorney said the ban violates the Florida Constitution in several ways, including improper limits on their private property rights and violation of the equal protection clause by singling out vegetables over other plants. "We're not saying you can do anything you want on your property," attorney Ari Bargil told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Monica Gordo. "We are simply saying you can grow vegetables on your property and that is protected by the Constitution." Richard Sarafan, attorney for Miami Shores, said the new zoning rule was not irrational and treated all homeowners the same: their front yards should be covered with grass, sod or a "living ground cover" not further defined. It's no problem, he said, to have a vegetable garden in the backyard. "There certainly is not fundamental right to grow vegetables in your front yard," Sarafan said. "Aesthetics and uniformity are legitimate government purposes. Not every property can lawfully be used for every purpose." Carroll, who attended the hearing, said the couple sought to grow produce using organic practices, such as no use of pesticides. He said he had never gotten a complaint from a neighbor in all the years he tended the garden, which grew some 75 varieties of vegetables. "It's important that we have the right to do something on our own property," Carroll said. "We're just trying to grow vegetables." The couple is being represented by lawyers from the Arlington, Virginia-based Institute for Justice, which describes itself as a Libertarian nonprofit organization that focuses on issues such as private property rights, school choice and free speech. Gordo did not immediately rule. Both sides said the judge could decide the matter without a trial, but either way the case is likely to be appealed, attorneys said. ******* "Aesthetics and uniformity are legitimate government purposes..." 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 14.
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
You can. In your back yard.
You can. In your back yard. "For 17 years, a South Florida couple grew vegetables in a front-yard garden until a new town ordinance was passed limiting such gardens to backyards." Now all of sudden for no reason, they pass an ordinance banning front yard gardens? "Aesthetics and uniformity are legitimate government purposes..." Only in a police state.
Buy more. Be Happy. Consume.... www.youtube.com/watch? v=ly_djozCksg ...what the king forces you to buy by prohibiting what you can grow and eat on your own land.
...what the king forces you to buy by prohibiting what you can grow and eat on your own land. No one is forcing anyone to buy anything here. Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts can grow food in their back yard.
Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts can grow food in their back yard. Or they can buy some property out of town with plenty of open land and no trees. I find it hard to sympathize with this couple. My community association enforces stuff like that and it doesn't bother me.
Absolutely. You choose to live in a town, you live by the rules established for the community. If you don't like the rules, you either get the rules changed or you move away. Simple.
Absolutely. You choose to live in a town, you live by the rules established for the community. It's their property. The "rules" were already established for at least 16 years - now the town wants to arbitrarily change the rules. None of the neighbors have complained, this is just another instance of petty bureaucrats denying the rights of citizens to use their own property. Plastic flamingos are OK, but veggie garden is not Hermine and Tom are part of a nationwide movement of small-scale food producers and consumers who are tired of the government dictating what foods they can grow, sell, and eat. On November 19, 2013, they joined with the Institute for Justice to challenge Miami Shores’ senseless front-yard vegetable garden ban. Their case aims to vindicate the right of all Americans to peacefully use their own property to support their own families. Miami Shores Village, Fla.’s unconstitutional ban on front-yard vegetable gardens prohibits homeowners from growing vegetables in their front yards. But trees, fruit and garden gnomes are just fine. The argument for regulating neighborhood aesthetics is not a new one in South Florida. Coral Gables used to have an ordinance prohibiting residents from parking pickup trucks in their own driveways at night. I don't know about you government apologists, but I would much rather live next to a house with a well-maintained front-yard garden (like this one) than a yard littered with pink flamingos and garden gnomes.
Determined to be unconstitutional by whom, why and when?
There are no replies to Comment # 14. End Trace Mode for Comment # 14.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest"It's important that we have the right to do something on our own property," Carroll said.
#5. To: misterwhite (#1)
"It's important that we have the right to do something on our own property," Carroll said.
#6. To: Deckard (#5)
#7. To: VxH (#6)
#10. To: Gatlin (#7)
No one is forcing anyone to buy anything here.
#11. To: TrappedInMd (#10)
No one is forcing anyone to buy anything here.
Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts can grow food in their back yard.
Or they can buy some property out of town with plenty of open land and no trees.
I find it hard to sympathize with this couple.
My community association enforces stuff like that and it doesn't bother me.
#12. To: Gatlin, TrappedInMd, boot-licking slaves (#11)
(Edited)
I find it hard to sympathize with this couple. My community association enforces stuff like that and it doesn't bother me.
#14. To: Deckard (#12)
(Edited)
... unconstitutional ban ...
Replies to Comment # 14.
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