From Boing Boing:
In Kansas, 9-year-old Spencer Collins has been told by authorities that he must stop sharing books with his neighbors, and close the little free library in his yard. Its slogan was “take a book, leave a book,” but city government is mostly about the taking.
Collins loves reading. He doesn’t just dive into a book — he swims through its pages. “It’s kind of like I’m in a whole other world and I like that,” he said. “I like adventure stories because I’m in the adventure and it’s fun.”
When he tried to share his love for books, it started a surprisingly frustrating adventure.
“When we got home from vacation, there was a letter from the city of Leawood saying that it was in code violation and it needed to be down by the 19th or we would receive a citation,” said Spencer’s mother, Sarah Collins. The Bookcase was considered an illegal accessory building.”
City council
The city council has commented on this —
http://pvpost.com/2014/06/20/collins-family-removes-little-free-library-from-leawood-home-local-city-councilor-comments-on-situation-28779
all is not lost
recommend reading the City Council follow up…
Other violations?
I’ll bet he neglected to pull a Building Permit from the city before he built the bookshelf, too. Clearly this young man has no respect for the law.
Thing is
You can change things if you get involved. This is what will happen in July.
What the City Neglected to Do
If they would bother to read their own ordinances they would see it doesn’t even meet their definition of structure. Bunch of hysteria about nothing. Why do people cave to some letter on stationery. I once got a threatening letter and they cited a section. I looked it up: “reserved for future use”, and went on about my business. All they had to do was read their zoning ordinances/code whatever, that we all can find on the internet and see their little book house on a stool did not meet the definition of a structure as defined.