One Maryland Thrift Store: 40 Pages of Zoning Documentation

Addison Del Mastro shares the story of the thrift store with a 40-page zoning decision. The thrift store in question is located in the Hillandale Shopping Center in suburban Silver Spring, Maryland, and there's really nothing very remarkable about the building, and its uses at all.

According to Del Mastro, a document from 2007 reveals a different story—one of a big development fight preceding the store's opening. "Eileen Finnegan of the Hillandale Citizens Association—who, an area planner told me, is a well-known 'professional NIMBY'—filed an appeal against the store’s permitting, arguing that a thrift store should not have been permitted under the strip plaza’s C-1 (neighborhood commercial) zoning," writes Del Mastro, who continues:

It goes to show just how many hoops developers and business owners have to jump through to get anything done. And paradoxically, there’s a good argument to be made that the more complexity and red tape there is, the more relative advantage the largest developers have in the process. A land-use lawyer loves a document like this; a homeowner or small business owner’s eyes glaze over. This document is a perfect encapsulation of the byzantine development process, as well as a window into the emotions and arguments that arise as places change.

Click through to the source article for photos of the thrift store and quotes from the document.