At Home In The Woods

[Diamondpilot]

Yes, I have considered putting up a "Construction Office" sign. On the other hand, I agree with CurlyDave that the sign won't fool anyone. Our fate is really under the good (or bad) graces of the inspector.

Obed

Treat him right and he will treat you right. I would not draw attention to the camper and keep the wife and baby out of sight when he is there. If he ask about it just say you are using it as a mobile office and to store the plans, tools, ect. Nothing more will be said.

Chris

 

[bitternut]

You might want to check to see if your town allows special use permits for your particular need. Of course you would have to inquire on the sly just in case they don't. I live in rural ny and am a member of a zoning board and I would guess that you would be granted a permit with your situation in our town. Should be pretty obvious to any town official that you will be residing in your camper for only a short time. They should welcome the additional assessed value to the tax rolls, I know we sure would.

 

[Pops15]

As long as your camper isn't visible from the road or from neighboring properties you should be ok as long as you continue to make steady progress on your house. As long as you don't try to BS the inspector, and your neighbors don't complain you should be ok. Key word being "should". Best bet is to have a contingency plan and that shouldn't be fighting city hall. You don't want them mad at you come final inspection time.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

In my area the older inspectors would work with you. Some of the newer inspectors are more letter of the law type. When I built I had no problem with the inspectors as long as I did it their way. Even if I thought they were wrong, I did it their way, had no problems.

Zoning is a double edged sword. Zoning officials also have a way of selective enforcement.

 

[towmotor]

I live in New England snob country, and we lived in a camper, on site, while we built our house.
I was advised that as long as no one is complaining, most towns are too afraid of being countered legally to do much about it.

Your little daughter, rather than being a liability in this situation, may be your best defence.
I had three daughters when we were in my trailer. The advised word for the zoning official?
"My children have safe, suitable shelter; is your insistence that I leave an offer to provide better shelter?"

It never came to any of that-and I'm glad it didn't-but I wouldn't have hesitated to "activate" my attorney if it had.

 

[srs]

Treat him right and he will treat you right. keep the wife and baby out of sight when he is there. Chris

I agree about treating the inspector right and disagree on keeping the wife and baby out of sight. When the inspector shows up have the wife show the inspector your new "addition". If the inspector has any kind of heart he'll be more inclined to work with you to get you into the house ASAP.

 

[woodlandfarms]

thats prime bigfoot country. keep your eyes peeled.

I thought my area was bigfoot area. Boy that guy (girl?) gets around....

 

[dcyrilc]

I thought my area was bigfoot area. Boy that guy (girl?) gets around....

I believe they're different sub-species. LOL

 

[Bartcephus]

Zoning is a double edged sword. Zoning officials also have a way of selective enforcement.

THe legal terminolgy for that is arbitrary and capricious. Saw the same stuff in Oklahoma City in a "Historic Neighborhood." A couple was refurbishing a run down house and the paint was peeling on the outside. It was clear the property was in renovation. The HA demanded that they "repaint" immediately. They indicated that their plans included repainting but the HA threatened assessments and the like. So they decided to paint the house immediately. They choose a set of clashing purple hues for the house and trim. Neighbors were upset with the new "Barney" house but the HA has no control over the color of the paint. Sometimes revenge is sweet... I still don't understand how they can arbitrarily enforce codes when Obed moved his camper on the property, cleaned up the property, and was within the regulations. Sometimes you can't win against city hall because the cost of the fight is more than it is worth. I call that economic estopple.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I'm working on a project now that has a zoning "issue", the town is making us rezone for a type of building, and on the very next lot, same as our existing zoning, is the same type of building. The same zoning laws were in effect when their building underwent a change of use, they didn't have to rezone, but we have to.

 

[TheGoose]

WTF kind of country do we live in where someone who is IN THE COUNTRY with proper water and sewer cannot live in thier camper? How can they decide how you can and can't live? That's why you leave the city so you can live your life as you see it. Junky as you want to be, or clean as you want to be. What if you wanted to live in a tent?

 

[dcyrilc]

That's one of the disadvantages of a larger government... less freedoms. I am quite familiar with this type of thing. Our land was rezoned to residentual about 15 years ago (we've had and farmed it for 25 years). When we tried to put a house on it 10 years ago, we were told that it would be a change of useage and we would have to get rid of the farm and put 16.5 of the 17 acres into native growth protection. The county said we could use the remaining 1/2 acre for the house. I guess our county hasn't heard of a farmhouse.

 

[Obed]

W... kind of country do we live in where someone who is IN THE COUNTRY with proper water and sewer cannot live in thier camper? How can they decide how you can and can't live? That's why you leave the city so you can live your life as you see it. Junky as you want to be, or clean as you want to be. What if you wanted to live in a tent?

TheGoose,
We had considered moving our camper onto our property in Anderson County (which is zoned agriculture) and waiting a while before building. So I called the Anderson County zoning office incognito and told them we were interested in buying ag zoned land and wanted to know what would be required to put a camper on the land.

The zoning officer asked if we would want to hook up utilities on the property. When I said yes, she said that we couldn't hook up utilities for a camper anywhere in the entire county unless the camper was in an RV park. Keep in mind, half of Anderson county is mountainous and is sparsely populated in the mountain regions. But no campers are allowed by the zoning office. I did not check the actual Anderson Counting zoning ordinance like I did for Knox County where we got evicted. I wouldn't be surprised if Anderson County zoning office is making up their own laws just like the county that evicted us. However, soon enough we'll be in the house and hopefully the camper issue won't be an issue.

Obed

 

[dcyrilc]

TheGoose,
We had considered moving our camper onto our property in Anderson County (which is zoned agriculture) and waiting a while before building. So I called the Anderson County zoning office incognito and told them we were interested in buying ag zoned land and wanted to know what would be required to put a camper on the land.

The zoning officer asked if we would want to hook up utilities on the property. When I said yes, she said that we couldn't hook up utilities for a camper anywhere in the entire county unless the camper was in an RV park. Keep in mind, half of Anderson county is mountainous and is sparsely populated in the mountain regions. But no campers are allowed by the zoning office. I did not check the actual Anderson Counting zoning ordinance like I did for Knox County where we got evicted. I wouldn't be surprised if Anderson County zoning office is making up their own laws just like the county that evicted us. However, soon enough we'll be in the house and hopefully the camper issue won't be an issue.

Obed

Hopefully everything will go smoothly and the issue with the trailer will end up being a non-issue.

 

[Obed]

That's one of the disadvantages of a larger government... less freedoms. I am quite familiar with this type of thing. Our land was rezoned to residentual about 15 years ago (we've had and farmed it for 25 years). When we tried to put a house on it 10 years ago, we were told that it would be a change of useage and we would have to get rid of the farm and put 16.5 of the 17 acres into native growth protection. The county said we could use the remaining 1/2 acre for the house. I guess our county hasn't heard of a farmhouse.

One piece of property for sale that we looked at had a house, barn, and 20 acres. It was an estate. The county had rezoned the property to residential but there was a grandfather clause to allow existing ag properties to continue to be used for ag. When the owners died, the out-of-state heirs sold the animals. Unknown to the heirs, after the property had no farm animals on it for 6 months, it could no longer be used as a farm. The property then became useless to anyone wanting to buy it other than a developer. However, the lay of the land was not ideal for development so the property was having a tough time selling.

 

[dcyrilc]

One piece of property for sale that we looked at had a house, barn, and 20 acres. It was an estate. The county had rezoned the property to residential but there was a grandfather clause to allow existing ag properties to continue to be used for ag. When the owners died, the out-of-state heirs sold the animals. Unknown to the heirs, after the property had no farm animals on it for 6 months, it could no longer be used as a farm. The property then became useless to anyone wanting to buy it other than a developer. However, the lay of the land was not ideal for development so the property was having a tough time selling.

Our issue is similar. We are a bottomland farm. As long as we continue to farm it, it is usable land. However if we cease farming it, it's wetlands. And yet, in the last 15 years, they have raised our taxes to nearly $10K per year since it's zoned residentual. We have looked at the variences for Ag taxation, but if you ever want to remove it or you sell it, you have 90 days to pay the difference in back taxes plus penalties or it must be put into Native Growth Protection.

Here in western Washington, wetland preservation is a huge thing to the different counties and ours is one of the leaders in this. The county south of us passed laws that if you have rural land of 5 acres or more you must put 50% of it into Native Growth Protection to permit anything.

Our south property line is now 650 feet from the city limits and we have an elementary school diagonal from our northwest property corner (used to be a gravel pit). I figure it will be about ten more years and we will be in the city. Then we come under different rules and will have room for about 100 buildable lots and it will be time to sell and leave Washington. Raw city lots around here sell for between $100K and $150K so we should have no problem buying elsewhere to retire and raise our cattle.

 

[CurlyDave]

Our south property line is now 650 feet from the city limits and we have an elementary school diagonal from our northwest property corner (used to be a gravel pit). I figure it will be about ten more years and we will be in the city. Then we come under different rules and will have room for about 100 buildable lots and it will be time to sell and leave Washington. Raw city lots around here sell for between $100K and $150K so we should have no problem buying elsewhere to retire and raise our cattle.

Unsolicited advice:

Talk to a good real estate lawyer about this NOW and do whatever you have to to preserve this option for yourself.

We used to have a a law where a property owner could subdivide in OR, but it got voted out and now he can only divide into four parcels. Essentially the real estate interests & professional property developers are very good at having laws passed which prevent mere property owners from doing real estate development.

 

[TheGoose]

Wow. I'm just astounded at these reply's. I have already seen the change that a big city brings as Houston (suburbia) inches closer to our home. Interestingly, Houston has no zoning. Which is why it is so spread out and disorganized. As our county sits south of 5 million people the growth is coming this way. For now, I enjoy living in our small town and living a rural way of life.

 

[dave1949]

Wow. I'm just astounded at these reply's. I have already seen the change that a big city brings as Houston (suburbia) inches closer to our home. Interestingly, Houston has no zoning. Which is why it is so spread out and disorganized. As our county sits south of 5 million people the growth is coming this way. For now, I enjoy living in our small town and living a rural way of life.

Me too Goose. Hard to fathom how this could come about. When I read these posts, I get more of an appreciation for New England-style Town Hall government and Maine's voter referendums which can veto state laws or force the legislature to make laws agreed to by the majority in a referendum.

Not perfect systems, but it seems like individual communities have more say in such things. Zoning is a dirty word in the little town I live in, we don't have zoning. Still have to comply with state rules about wetlands, or buffers between building sites and lakes/streams which are reasonable for the most part.

Cyril - Get on US Route 2, drive east to Farmington, Maine, I'll show you some unzoned land
Dave.

 

[bake321]

Cyril
Don't overplay your hand. I did in Phoenix AZ and saw a million dollar potential gain go bye bye. "A bird in the hand". The way this country is going nothing is for certain anymore.

Cary