Endangered Magical Species Act

Here in the States, you often hear developers grumbling about problems they face when a piece of land is designated as part of the habitat of an endangered species.

Now, we could get into a discussion about the merits of development vs. the merits of habitat conservation, but I don't feel like doing that right now. Instead, let us look to Scotland, where it seems a developer recently ran into, shall we say, a sillier set of circumstances:

VILLAGERS who protested that a new housing estate would “harm the fairies” living in their midst have forced a property company to scrap its building plans and start again.

You read that right folks. Fairies. The magical kind, not the San Francisco kind.

That's pretty funny, right? Well, I guess it is, if you're not the developer.

Marcus Salter, head of Genesis Properties, estimates that the small colony of fairies believed to live beneath a rock in St Fillans, Perthshire, has cost him £15,000.

According to this site, that's just shy of $27,000! For fairies!

Salter originally wanted to move the rock, which prompted the outcry. When he decided to work arounf\d the rock, that still wasn't good enough for the locals, who said that the fairies would be "upset." This is about the time that I'd snap and go on a killing spree, but apparently Salter agreed to move the development. The man must have the patience of a Saint.

Luckily, cooler heads within the local government have prevailed. Oh, wait. No they didn't:

The Planning Inspectorate has no specific guidelines on fairies but a spokesman said: “Planning guidance states that local customs and beliefs must be taken into account when a developer applies for planning permission.” Mr Salter said: “We had to redesign the entire thing from scratch.”

Thankfully, my local planning commission isn't full of superstitious dopes and hippies, which is why we've been able to live here in our lovely home in the Indian Burial Ground Estates for so many years.

Now, if I could just get that vortex into hell behind the refrigerator to close...

(via Ace)