b'Chapter EightZoning is a snarly little animalMargaret Swanson, Chatham Town PlannerFew could find fault with the Purpose and Intent statement in Chathams current Zoning Bylaw (ZB).With a Brave New World innocence, it says:The purpose of this Bylaw is to manage growth and development in the Town so as to insure the appropriate use of land, encouraging those qualities which distinguish Chatham as a desirable community foryear-round and seasonal residence, commerce,tourism and recreation.Transparent as that lead-in might seem, it overlays a set of regulations making up what lawyer William Riley labels an incredibly complex document, the Zoning Bylaw. For all too many, it might as well be written in ancient Sanskrit. Any layman set on altering the Bylaw stands at the edge of a mist-layered, poorly marked mine field. Says Riley, whos scouted that territory for 30 years, you make a change here and it bulges out there. Its very difficult.That lesson FCW has learned the hard way, starting in 1999. The organization chose to face off against that snarly little animal, zoning. Along the way, it contested with people who rejected its proposed Bylaw changes and who were ready to spend big money to fight them. Several FCW functionaries came close to burnout after months of skirting the anti-personnel mines and contending with adversaries like Bill Riley; pulling no punches, he declared in one open session that FCWs ZB revision drafts were awful .horrible.There never was any doubt about which side he was on.It wasnt that the opposition rejected all regulation of land ownership. After all, similar rules had been around since Chathams founder, William Nickerson Senior, cast a long shadow over his familys many acres more than three centuries ago.1 In 1696, an order was made public that all the householders .should kill twelve blackbirds or three crows and bring the heads to the selectmen on pain of forfeiting six shillings.2 Writes historian William129'