There are petitions, protest T-shirts, an ocean of public sentiment and even some official sympathy for keeping Cal's Market open.

The tiny shop in the tiny hamlet of Greenwood is under the gun from El Dorado County for code violations.

Its owner, 71-year-old Vincent Cal, is adamant that he is willing to go to jail to keep his little store open.

"What they are doing to me is wrong, and I'm standing up to it," he said.

One key thing may not be in Cal's favor:

The law.

A retired contractor, Cal returned a few years back to Greenwood, along the Georgetown Divide where he used to ride motorcycles in the 1950s and '60s. He got a long-term lease on a piece of property on Main Street that had an old storefront.

He says it opened as a store in 1858. The town has been around – as Long Valley, then Lewisville, then Greenwood – since the 1840s.

Cal renovated the store and opened last November, the only store within six miles, carrying the usual snacks and sodas, some oddities such as Epsom salts and locally made items like rooster-painting greeting cards.

"We need things like this," said Wes Younger, president of the Greenwood civic improvement group.

Trouble is, the property is zoned residential, not commercial.

"We are the only property in a full circle that's zoned R-1A," said Jamisa Fletcher, Cal's partner and store manager. Fletcher and Cal think the county made a mistake zoning the storefront as residential.

"Why should I pay them 20 or 30 grand to correct their mistake?" Cal asked.

That's his estimate, based on initial fees for a general plan amendment application and subsequent studies and permits he would need.

He's tapped into a general frustration with government to rally people to his side.

"The more I go to meetings, the more I hear horror stories" about county planning, said Kathy Otermat, a member of the Georgetown Divide Public Utility District board.

People complain – as they do in many counties – that planning officials make them jump through hoops to get projects done.

"They need to have the leeway to make some more rational decisions," Otermat said.

She created the T-shirts for Cal's supporters to wear for a recent court date. He was arrested, though not jailed, for his code violations.

So many supporters left the courtroom when Cal's appearance was over, Otermat said, that the judge joked that someone must have called recess.

Even Supervisor Ron Briggs acknowledges that the county plan has "gaffes."

He also worries that Cal may be his own worst enemy.

"I'm trying to help him from himself," Briggs said.

Briggs has offered to shepherd a fee waiver request through, to make it more affordable for the store to stay.

"The community wants it, and the county wants it, God bless him," Briggs said.

"I do believe I can have his fees waived, but he's got to do the paperwork," Briggs said.

Pierre Rivas, a county planner, isn't so sure it's the right way to go.

"It doesn't seem fair for all the people who go through the process the right way," he said.

Rivas said the zoning was not a mistake.

It was, in fact, the first zoning the county established for the property in 1976, and nobody asked to have it changed in 2004, when things were revised.

"I would think the property owner at the time wanted it residential," he said.

Zoning is not Cal's only problem, Rivas said.

There may be health and safety violations, required building upgrades, ADA accessibility and worker's compensation issues.

Those make Cal angry, too.

"That's what I'm fighting for," he said. "The whole system at this point is to stop something."

And, he said, he's ready to go to jail to make his point.

"The worst thing they could do," he said, referring to his arrest, "is feed me, clothe me and put a roof over my head."

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