I got a big problem

I live at the end of a dirt road,in the country,not the city. It is zoned agricuitural . I got a letter from the zoning and building dept. saying all cars and trucks and parts , has got to go. In 30 days. I live at the end of the road,nobody has to go past my house and see my " junk ". My neighbors got letters saying,they need to paint their house and cut the grass.WHAT THE @#$% ? Last year my town,Augusta,Ga.--passed a rain-tax--charge for water run off--that goes down the sewer. Guess what? I pay $ 6.50 a month for that and I dont have city water--I have a well + septic tank + and live on a dirt road with no sewers. Guess its time to move.

Would it make a difference if you had a privacy fence?

In the little town where my daughter & son-in-law have a house (Danville, Ohio) there is an old car used car lot. All from the 50's & 60's. Would you believe the town leaders complained about the untagged cars? If anything, that place draws people into that town. Shooting themselves in the foot, it seems to me.

Sounds like somebody has a vested interest and wants to force their "standards" on you. Is there property for sale (or recently sold) nearby?

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Neto, I called them and asked them if I could put all my stuff in the back yard and do a fence--and he said NO and he said I would need a permit to put up a fence. And DR.C . nothing for sale,but I know what u mean....Ive been wanting to move so this just the kick in the pants I needed to do it. I know how to deal with them,and I think they will give me more time,as long as it looks like Im going to comply. I think these code enforcers just ride around looking for stuff.

I've been there... not really there, but I've been here and fought bureaucracy a time or two.

Best of luck and I hope it works out for the better...

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It's only gonna get worse with the use of drones.
They can see it from the air and don't even have to do drive by's.
A severe invasion of our privacy.

I guess it varies from one area to another, but I wouldn't have thought there would be that type of building-zoning restrictions outside of a municipality. If their complaint was based on appearance, then it would seem that a fence would be encouraged, but maybe they're using the "blight" argument - that the old vehicles provide a haven for rats & mice. But they are going to live someplace, and they won't leave just because there are not any old vehicles around. But I think that Old Iron is right - it is going to get worse. I know the mindset, too, because I hear it in my own extended family (on my wife's side Ha Ha).

Start moving stuff around, mowing weeds. Apply to get on the historical register or get a museum permit. If zoning allows, get a business permit and call it a restoration shop. Lawyer up and fight the bastads, get a grandfather clause. Start hounding the crap out of your councilman, commissioner or whoever the elected officials are. Get all the neighbors together and storm the meetings. I'm betting you have one old tight a$$ neighbot who is on the council.
Or just move (what I would do)

I hear them drones is good to eat if ya use enough butter....seriously, the first drone that floats across my place better have it's bullet-proof jammies on!

smallfoot said:

I hear them drones is good to eat if ya use enough butter....seriously, the first drone that floats across my place better have it's bullet-proof jammies on!

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Exactly [cl [ddd

Misfit,
Exactly why I move way out in the country. I built several homes & a couple of offices in Houston & dealing with the city's permitting & inspection departments was a nightmare! When building my office I have to pay 4 $500 bribes! We converted an old washateria into our house & that was a total nightmare. I was retired during the washateria debacle and after that experience I told Mrs Tripper we were hittin' the trail so to speak & we did! Never looked back & so glad we did! I live near a small town of 50 & everybody here minds their own business... that's what I'm talkin' about! I know cities creep up on people out in the country so I made sure that wouldn't happen in my lifetime!

BoB

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. You have to keep after it yourself or it will go away. I would begin with finding out who is bringing this to the fore. These ideas originate somewhere, so find out who the person or persons are who are supporting these ideas. See if you can talk to them and find out what the driving force is behind their thinking. If you can learn the reasoning behind it, you have a better chance of combatting it.

I used to live in an urban community of roughly 130 homes in south Tempe, Arizona. There were 2 streets in and out and no through streets going anywhere else. There was no homeowner's association to deal with, that's the reason I bought there. I've been a hotrodder all my life and always had one or two projects going on, with something or another jacked up or in the process of being dismantled in the driveway, because the 2-car garage was jammed full of tools and spare parts.

I began having the zoning inspector come by and hassle me about every two weeks or so. I ignored his demands until one day I happened to be home and he came by with another notice to clear the property of "unsightly" car parts. I talked to him and he told me that there was one elderly man from the community who was making all the fuss and giving the zoning inspectors grief over my cars and parts. I did everything but threaten to put a bullet in the inspector, but he would not give up the man's name.

Well, long story short, I kept doing what I do and the inspector kept coming around, until I found that my projects in the driveway were grandfathered in. (My projects had been there before the codes were written that made them an infraction). I stayed there another 20 years and never did find out who the old man was, although if I had, I would have been in jail for assault and battery. This old guy needed to be living in a gated community with a homeowner's association, not an ungoverned community such as where we lived.

I'm an old guy myself now, and have sold off all my tools and projects, but I keep in touch by being on several automotive forums such as this one and sharing my experiences and suggestions. I have a head full of knowledge that will die with me if I can't pass it on to a new and younger group of enthusiasts.

My town passed some "clean-up " laws last year and they have guys riding around looking for stuff. Like Tripper says, I just need to move out further

Country Misfit said:

My town passed some "clean-up " laws last year and they have guys riding around looking for stuff. Like Tripper says, I just need to move out further

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The county I use to live in down in Oregon used satellite to find code violations. A guy down the road got a notice in the mail about a building he built on his property w/o permits. The notice had satellite photos of the property with the new building circled. If you put your address in google it's pretty easy to see the car guys around your area.

Maybe some research into the wording of the codes they claim you are violating. Maybe you can get a bit creative until you figure out what you are going to do.

Sad story... When I was younger.. there was guy near town but this was fairly country at the time... who was a junk collector/hoarder. Well the city ended up putting a school up basically next to his place. The city forced him to clean up. There was a be a big write up about it in the papers.. all the boy scouts would volunteer to help and what not.. anyway they would clean up.. a few years later it would be a full again. After repeating the cycle a few times... the city seized his land and evicted him I believe they may have institutionalized him for a brief period. He was then homeless after that, about a year after that he was walking down the side of the street at night, and was hit by a car and died, probably less than half a mile where his home use to be.

There's a small town a few miles outside the metro area - used to be about 3,000 people. All the metro people that were sick of the rules in their little snobby communities started moving out to the small town so they could have things like 4 car garages, pole barns, projects in the back yard or even chickens. Well, fast forward 15 years and that small town is now an even snobbier community with all the same rules plus more, because most of the laid back original towns people got fed up and moved elsewhere.

I live in the Netherlands and it all so tidy and clean and full of people... I think no one has cars or other rusty crap piled up here anymore since the early 80`s.
Sure if you live in town and people are forced to to look at your junk every day, they may have a point, but being out in the country it just sucks that others want to force their standards down yer throat. I hope you get things sorted. good luck

I was tight with the boss at the code enforcement office for 20-odd years. When someone would whine about my cars, I would call him and ask what I needed to do. I would fix it, and all would be well. Then he retired, and the next guy told me I was a continuing problem, and to just get rid if the car. Turned out it was my brothers 40 Dodge PU, on my trailer beside the garage with a tarp over it. It was to the letter of the law. They didn't care. "We're in charge now. Deal with it." We moved the truck, and put the trailer right back in the same place. There are uglier things in the driveway that the neighbors don't whine about. Go figure. I think it was the blue tarp. It might have been revenge for my mowing the dandelions when the breeze was just right after I got a citation for tall grass and weeds where a lawn should be.

I've seen this kind of stuff in some our local communities. The locals are pretty cool about things around here but rich retirees have moved in and started trying to tell people who've lived there all their lives what to do! A bunch of us locals started raising hell and ran some of these idiots of of town! Something it takes just a few people to start this kind of BS and it can be hard to stop.

Zipper