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MI:Board approves firearms business in home
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Board approves firearms business in home
Owner will not sell guns or keep inventory on the property
By DAVID JESSE
Staff Writer
A Holland resident has gained the approval of city officials to run a gun business out of his home, but with one major condition -- no guns are to be sold there.
That's OK with Thomas Volkema.
"This is going to be a repository for my records," he told the Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday night. "I'm not going to bring (guns) in."
Volkema, who lives at 303 Maple Ave., plans on running a gun consulting business.
He plans to work with disposal of guns from estates of deceased gun owners at auctions and also will work to help gun collectors find guns.
"None of this will take place on my property," he said.
City officials approved the business unanimously after walking Volkema through questions about the business.
"Mr. Volkema answered all the questions appropriately and there are certain restrictions we put on this home," Lynn Kobes, a board member, said.
Those restrictions included no sign advertising the business can be posted, no guns for sale are to be kept at the house and no clients are allowed to visit the house to conduct business.
"I want to make sure we have enough in place that if we have complaints, we have enough that is enforceable," Chairman Marvin Martin said.
Despite the fact that the house is located across from St. Francis de Sales Church and close to Holland's Washington Elementary, no one spoke in opposition to the business.
A letter from neighbors on 13th Street expressed some concerns, but not opposition to the plan.
This is the second time recently the city has dealt with a request to run a gun business from a home.
An application for a home-based gun sales business on Central Avenue near Longfellow School garnered attention last year when Jean-Paul LaBarge and his father, William "Jet" LaBarge, applied to the zoning appeals board.
The LaBarges' request drew criticism from residents and educators at Longfellow.
The board rejected the gun sales business after appeals board members found it failed to meet one of the 12 criteria in the city's zoning ordinance for home-based businesses.
The ordinance states that home-based businesses cannot keep any stock on hand, only incidentals.
Unlike the LaBarges' request, Volkema has told the city he won't stock any guns in his residence. He believes his federal gun sales license allows him to arrange for the delivery of weapons off-site. A letter from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told city officials Volkema could sell guns outside his home.
http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/092702/loc_092702009.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Owner will not sell guns or keep inventory on the property
By DAVID JESSE
Staff Writer
A Holland resident has gained the approval of city officials to run a gun business out of his home, but with one major condition -- no guns are to be sold there.
That's OK with Thomas Volkema.
"This is going to be a repository for my records," he told the Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday night. "I'm not going to bring (guns) in."
Volkema, who lives at 303 Maple Ave., plans on running a gun consulting business.
He plans to work with disposal of guns from estates of deceased gun owners at auctions and also will work to help gun collectors find guns.
"None of this will take place on my property," he said.
City officials approved the business unanimously after walking Volkema through questions about the business.
"Mr. Volkema answered all the questions appropriately and there are certain restrictions we put on this home," Lynn Kobes, a board member, said.
Those restrictions included no sign advertising the business can be posted, no guns for sale are to be kept at the house and no clients are allowed to visit the house to conduct business.
"I want to make sure we have enough in place that if we have complaints, we have enough that is enforceable," Chairman Marvin Martin said.
Despite the fact that the house is located across from St. Francis de Sales Church and close to Holland's Washington Elementary, no one spoke in opposition to the business.
A letter from neighbors on 13th Street expressed some concerns, but not opposition to the plan.
This is the second time recently the city has dealt with a request to run a gun business from a home.
An application for a home-based gun sales business on Central Avenue near Longfellow School garnered attention last year when Jean-Paul LaBarge and his father, William "Jet" LaBarge, applied to the zoning appeals board.
The LaBarges' request drew criticism from residents and educators at Longfellow.
The board rejected the gun sales business after appeals board members found it failed to meet one of the 12 criteria in the city's zoning ordinance for home-based businesses.
The ordinance states that home-based businesses cannot keep any stock on hand, only incidentals.
Unlike the LaBarges' request, Volkema has told the city he won't stock any guns in his residence. He believes his federal gun sales license allows him to arrange for the delivery of weapons off-site. A letter from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told city officials Volkema could sell guns outside his home.
http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/092702/loc_092702009.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878