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The proposed Greenville County Tree Ordinance that was given first reading by Greenville County Council last month met with total rejection from the public after portions of its provisions were published by The Times Examiner in the Wednesday, July 25, 2007 edition.
The setback has delayed forward progress of the proposal, and in the meantime advocates have been creating confusion in the public arena among those who do not have access to factual information.
Other local media did not report on the first reading or the provisions of the ordinance at the time, however, on Friday, August 18, the daily paper published a guest column by Robert G. “Butch” Taylor, critical of the proposed ordinance that was given first reading by Greenville County Council in July. Taylor is president of the Greenville County Taxpayers Association.
A five-year-old photograph was inserted into Taylor’s column on the editorial page before publication with a caption stating that the people in the photograph were celebrating passage of a tree ordinance on Tuesday night by Greenville County Council.
The next day, a correction was published acknowledging that the photo was from a 2002 file and not from a recent meeting.
The correction continued by stating incorrectly that a new tree ordinance has not come before the County Council, but might be presented to Council later this year.
The Times Examiner received several inquiries as a result of information published in The Greenville News, contradicting the comprehensive report on the first reading of the proposed tree ordinance published in The Times Examiner, July 25th, 2007.
The Times Examiner article stated that the proposed “Greenville County Tree Ordinance has passed First Reading and a public hearing will be scheduled.” The Council Chairman referred the proposed ordinance to the Council Committee on Public Works, Planning and Development chaired by Councilman Jim Burns, an advocate for the proposal.
To date, Burns has not placed the proposed tree ordinance on the committee agenda for discussion.
The Times Examiner article further explained that “the 22–page ordinance was drafted by the Tree Policy Advisory Committee established by County Council Chairman Herman G. “Butch” Kirven. Some of the leading environmentalist activists in the upstate were members of the drafting committee…”
Advocates for the radical ordinance, apparently embarrassed by its public rejection, have begun to mobilize their resources, attempt to confuse the public and give the revised ordinance, a propaganda nudge when it surfaces from the committee where it was referred by Chairman Butch Kirven after first reading.
Environmental activists are well-organized in the upstate of South Carolina and can bring together several hundred demonstrators with signs and slogans on short notice.
Opponents of the proposed ordinance are individual property owners and others who understand the ordinance is not just about trees, but about money and power achieved through control of people by controlling the use of their property.
The opponents of attempts to limit property rights of citizens have no organizational structure, however, Butch Taylor, current president of the Greenville County Taxpayers Association, clearly understands what is taking place and has become a spokesman for resistance to the unconstitutional proposals contained in the ordinance currently under consideration.
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