The saying goes, “One step forward and two steps back.” In the case of our server project, it’s been, “One step back followed by several giant steps forward.”
Our original plan was to partner with an existing greenhouse on agricultural land. Problem is that you can’t put anything non-agricultural on land zoned agricultural, hence a roadblock.
My partner in Saguenay, Quebec, went to the city and talked to the French equivalent of the Planning and Zoning Commission. The conversation went something like this. “I have an idea and we’re trying to make it happen. We’re looking at property that lets us do commercial and agricultural. It will create jobs, and etc.” My partner in crime went on to outline the details of the project.
The city’s IT person was brought in to translate the tech parts, and the city’s ultimate reply was, “We can make this work. We have commercial land that abuts agricultural property and as long a there’s a demarcation between the commercial part and the agricultural part – different siding on the building, whatever – you can still do a single building, or two adjacent buildings with some kind of connectivity. Do you need to take possession next week or next month? What do we need to do to make this happen?” That’s pretty damned close to verbatim and not even close to the whole thing. Among other things we were offered help with the grant application process and subsidies and… well…
I’ll take that as a yes, with a cherry on top.