In this editorial the Citizen Times questions the need for Greenlife meditation because "The city’s zoning ordinance should be comprehensible enough for any intelligent person to figure out what it requires and it should be fairly enforced by city officials."

But if the city’s zoning laws are clear, the city adhered to them in issuing permits and Greenlife owner John Swann did not violate the permits he was issued, there should be no need for mediation.

It’s also true that there should be no need for mediation if the city’s zoning laws are unclear, or the city failed to adhere to them or Swann violated the permits he was issued. Again, it should be possible to determine where the fault lies and, in this case, who should be accountable for a remedy.

A private land planner hired by Reid Thompson, who renovated and rents five properties on Maxwell Street, contends that two loading docks built by Greenlife do not comply with zoning regulations. The planner, Joe Minicozzi, also says that Maxwell Street, which is used by tractor-trailer trucks coming to the Greenlife docks, is designated as a residential street and is off-limits to commercial traffic.

City planner Joe Heard said Greenlife’s loading dock was approved by the city and that the city classified Maxwell Street as mixed use with 50 percent of the properties on the street zoned or used for commercial purposes.

It’s clear that someone is either badly mistaken or that there is some other explanation for the confusion over the legality of Greenlife’s loading dock and the status of Maxwell Street.

Perhaps a solution can be found in mediation. That is much to be desired, since the store and rental properties exist in close proximity and both benefit the community.

The unfortunate part is that the dispute exists at all. The city’s zoning ordinance should be comprehensible enough for any intelligent person to figure out what it requires and it should be fairly enforced by city officials.

And that may well have been the case here, but if it was there should be no need for mediation after the fact.

We hope the mediation works, but the city has an obligation to ensure that circumstances leading to such disputes, which are detrimental to all involved, don’t continue to occur.