History Zoning -Any suggestions

When we first married we rented a house in town. and the neighbors all where kinda upset. I would park my log truck in the yard had a half dozen vehicles all running and licensed parked in the yard. they had a grass mowing ordinance. however I parks stuff and shaded and killed most of the grass. I was warned about the few tufts of remaining vegetation because it was getting tall. So I brought a billy goat to town and staked him out to eat the overgrowth. I was warned about no livestock rules. Goat gone now what to do. So I raked leaves and burned them on the grown up places. There where dozens of squirrls. So I planted two tomato plants. And then to protect my garden I live trapped the squirrls. I took them out of town to (relocate) them. And promptly harvested them when I let them out of the live trap. Squirrl are good to eat! There was a 4 way stop at the corner of the lot. and a street light. So I would set on the dark porch and have a purse set out in the street at that 4 way stop. had the purse attached to a fishing rod & line. When someone got out to get the purse just as they bent down. I gave a hook setting jerk and made the purse jump about 6 feet and reeled it in. It was great fun. Especially if you had toked on a joint or two. One day the police stopped to get the purse. And they did laugh and thought it was funny. The next day I was ticketed and summoned to court for some sort of Mischief charge. I just pled guilty and forfeted my $125 bond. I bet those Townies where overjoyed when we moved away.

 

Yes indeed. But as the saying goes. It takes all kinds to make a world

 

Ol55 Hate to say it but that's why I live on a mountain top.No problems except getting up the drive way.Bruce.

 

Bruce, I really like your place. I noticed you have the same parking break on your late models too. lol We built our home in the country also. Only it's at the bottom of the mountain. I checked with my neighbors before I built my garage. With a hidden junkyard behind it. They were all very cool, and love the old cars. You can also have old cars as yard art here too. And people are always stopping by to take photos. It does pay to check the zoning, before you build your { home and garage }.We will never move, but just keep adding more junk. lol Ron...

 

Man. I hope you were like 21, because all that stuff was the work of a real jerk. I'd be upset if I'd been one of your neighbors,too. I live out in the country because I don't like rules, but that doesn't mean I am inconsiderate and it surely doesn't mean I am not interested in protecting the value of my property.

 

Theres not much difference between HOA and Communists

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/complete-story-river-oaks-tank/

 

I was 22. Back then I would be in the woods at daylight. chainsaw and cut about thirty logs . skid them out and load on the truck. and take them to the mill. received a average of $90 for the load. paid 1/3 stumpage to the land owner. My expences ran around $15. and usually got home around 2 pm. And then worked on cars. until after dark. the one neighbor to the south was a Vietnam vet he had a ford mustang and a 50 ford coup. cool dude. he sold and smoked a lot of weed. Now we weren't making a lot of noise. Back then everything I owned had quiet mufflers. The cops would give you a ticket for having glass packs. But the folks around us decided we where terrible hippies and they started telling me I couldn't park the log truck in the yard. The guy we rented from was a lawyer and his mother owned rent houses all over town. And they weren't in too good shape. So as long as I paid my rent he didn't care.

 

I my driveway starts at the end of a 1/2 mile dead end road in an unzoned county. Then I have 1/4 mile of driveway. I live 1/2 mile from the nearest through road so I don't have anybody driving by my place. my nearest neighbor is 1/4 of a mile away at the end of my driveway. It can get to be a challenge to get out in the winter. A few pictures.

The first is my driveway in the winter.


The next is the 1/2 mile road at the end of my driveway.

Looking up my driveway from the other end.

 

That's pretty cool. If someone comes to your house they are really wanting to see you or they are lost. My folks farm was at the end of a mile of gravel road. the last 1/8 of a mile was on their land and dead ended at the bottom of a steep hill. When it snowed there wasn't any two wheel drive going up that hill. One time during a deep snow some hunters in a two wheel drive went past dads no trespassing signs and private road dead end sign and drove down there and couldn't get back up. The wanted us to pull them out with the tractor. And we refused. We let them use the phone and call a wrecker. So this wrecker driver drives down there and gets stuck also. They had to call a big wrecker with enough cable to set at the top and winch them out. We normally never even tried to go anyplace when it snowed. In Arkansas most times the snow don't last but a few days before it melts away.

 

Back when I first married and lived in town. A few houses away there was a single mom with a couple of boys the oldest was probably 14. They where always working on bicycles. Taking them apart & painting them and swapping the parts. I thought they had a passion for turning wrenches and would someday be future hot rodders. It turned out those urchins where bicycle thieves. They would steal bikes & alter them at their moms house . And when they visited their father in Jonesboro they with the assistance of their father would sell them.

 

In this town we have what is called a Special Use permit. Used for stuff like having a cow or horse,chickens etc.And other stuff like one day events etc. This is like a permit that lets you do your thing as long as the fee is paid.Goes through zoning board for approval. Here its kind of who you know and blow. Some get the permit,some dont.Alot of times the town doesnt want to go to court over things and a agreement is worked out. Simple Politics
My outside stuff is either covered with a tarp, has a for sale sign on it(NOT for sale) or a plate. They cant say much to me cause thats what the rules are.I only put cars up front at the road to sell and price them that way.Doesnt help keeping a low profile with all the heaters on the road out front thanks to my son and his buddies
My wifes dad built this house in 52. If someone moves in the neighborhood and doesnt like the pullmax noice on Saturday afternoon, then you should have looked at the house on the weekend.

 

Some people aren't happy with just their business, they have to get into other peoples...

One local house got repoed, and the next door neighbor went over after the former owners cleared out; collected all the trash out of the yard (a considerable pile), put it into the burn pit the PO left and burned it. New owner moves in, burns some stuff in the same pit and she turns them in 'for burning too close to her house'...

Same gal, different other neighbor. Gal takes a walk every day with her dogs. Neighbor has a Newfoundland that he puts in a dog run to keep him home while he's at work. She 'feels sorry' for the dog, lets him out to walk with her but doesn't put him back. Owner comes home, has to go looking for his dog (the dog is usually at her house). Asks her to please leave the dog penned, she doesn't. Now for the best part... The Newfoundland is a big (140 lbs!), very mellow male dog, loves everybody. But her male dog is a bully... The male finally pushes the Newfie too far and starts a fight on her back porch... guess who the loser is. She takes the large vet bill and puts in his door with a note demanding payment. He doesn't pay, and threatens prosecution for trespassing if she doesn't stop letting the dog out. When he shows her the camera video of her letting the dog out (in plain view of the 'no trespassing' sign), she finally stops...

Some are just inconsiderate a-holes.... The guy at the end of the road had a teenage son with a dirt bike. We're rural, with lots of timber property around, lots of places to ride. Well, him and his buddies tear up so much stuff that they get run off the timber land. Start using our private road for their racetrack... The bikes are so loud that you can't hear the TV or hold a conversation inside my house when they go by (and this went on well after dark, sometimes as late as midnight). Besides almost hitting my car several times... I warned them multiple times that somebody would complain about the noise, and if they insisted on going 50-60 mph on our narrow, curvy gravel road, next time I'd run over them instead of dodging. Well, somebody did call the cops... The police left a decibel meter with the caller, and said if the needle goes past 'this line here', call us back. It did, and they did; Dad got a $350 fine, with a notice that it would double every time they had to come back...

All this is with NO HOA or covenants, so lack of them doesn't guarantee peace and quiet. Although the real knuckleheads do leave me alone, but I've been known to discharge firearms if I get irate enough....

 

Discharge firearm! My kids got me the sign in my avatar. Because I once warned someone that I didn't approve of their dogs trespassing by discharging a firearm up into the air. They called the cops. The sheriff dept investigator called me on the phone the next day. And He accused me of shooting at them. I asked him did he see any bullet holes in them or their truck. He said no. I told him well if I had been shooting at them there would have been holes and dead bodys. He got mad and told me he was coming to arrest me. I told him bring it on Me and my shotgun will be waiting. So I set out behind a bulldozer mad waiting for him to arrive. after a hour and a half I went and called the sheriffs office. Asked what was the holdup. The sheriff told me they weren't coming and had re interviewed the complaintant and decided I was justified. What they had done was back up in my driveway and let out a dozen hound dogs. And those hound dogs went and started chasing my goats. And the goats jumped up on a customers pickup truck. I couldn't shoot the dogs because I couldn't shoot another persons vehicle. If it had been one of our vehicles there would have been dead dogs. So I shot up in the air and they drove down the road calling their dogs. Apparently they told the law they where coon hunting across the road from my place and I shot at them. So I got the sign as a present and immediately put it up.

 

I put up the same sign on the privacy fence I had to put up to keep them happy.
Funny thing the fence is just about the same place someone had to be trespassing at on my property to take the picture they showed me in there court.

 

I made a few trips out to Acklin Gap Rd to buy parts from Mr Booth over the years. Always had what I was looking for, knew where it was, and had very good prices. I miss that place.

 

yep me and my father in law got along really well. He gave my eldest son a 70 chevelle when he was 12 years old. My son still has it. Ole Ray suffered pretty bad with cancer for several years before he passed. He gave Debbie his 66 chevy pickup that he bought new 7 years before he died. She still has it. I bought a lot of his tools at the estate auction. We lived at Conway for a year. I worked in little rock and drove wrecker for him at nite and weekends. Those wrecks where what started his salvage yard. He ran a Texaco Station at I40 and 64 for many years.

 

Most zoning ordinances are written in imitation of other zoning ordinances; it's not as if there is a bunch of guys smoking fat cigars around a boardroom table writing each and every one. But the pattern they all follow has a history, and that comes from an intersection of Modernism in design and a thing called Taylorist scientific management, which was huge in government planning around the early to mid 20th century. And as these patterns work, where some benefit they will tend to perpetuate the structure of it as far as they can, even if they don't quite understand the nuts and bolts of how the structure works - especially if the functioning of the structure is such as to increase the ability of its beneficiaries to perpetuate it. No cloak-and-dagger involved.

 

Zoning sucks. I wouldn't want to reside anyplace where Pretty Police want to boss everyone else. The only viable solution is to move away. Life isn't fair. Rules regulations and laws cannot change that. Its been stated the best government governs the least. I agree with that statement.

 

You have a really cool place there.

 

Modern zoning was rooted at the turn of the last century. Cities and towns decided that industry should be separate from residential and commercial uses, regardless of what the individual land owner wanted.
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_of_Euclid_v._Ambler_Realty_Co.

As a result of that Supreme Court case, we have today what's called "Euclidean Zoning" which has nothing to do with Euclidean Geometry. Maps are drawn by local governments showing where they want certain uses to be located. Rules are written to control behavior. It's all about local politics and who wants what put where. If you want it to change, then you have to influence the process. Money, power, popular support gets you what you want. If you don't have any of those, then you can't piss in the tall grass with the big dogs.

 

I was talking to the new neighbor, in the duplex next to us, and she said that the previous tenants got in trouble from the county for running a chop shop in the garage. I remember shortly before they got evicted, we ran back into the house to grab something, got back in the car and there they are in their car in our driveway with their phone out of the window what looked like they were taking pics of our property. I'm starting to think they were taking pics so they could try and snitch me out to township.

 

Except for when "...they're able to move under their own power and have current license and registration, you have no issues" doesn't include when you have a car like my Bluesmobile replica (faded & dirty paint, like the original movie car, same year, make, and model as the movie car) and they complain and get the Sheriff to put a big orange sticker on the windshield because "it LOOKS like it doesn't run". It had current plates, inspection, insurance, etc....... but the HOA members "didn't like it junking up the neighborhood".
BUT there is a guy with a POS old 40's car sitting right along the highway with "LSU" SPRAY PAINTED on it and SPRAY PAINTED purple and gold panels on it, it hasn't moved in decades, has ALL 4 tires flat as my first girlfriend, BUT everyone LOVES that car!

 

A friend that I went to school with. His mother has a large lot in town. And he is now divorced and moved home to take care of his aged mother. And he covered that lot up with vehicles lawnmowers tractors and motorcycles. And he was cited for zoning violations. And found guilty and fined a huge fine thousands of dollars. So He told the Judge I aint paying a Dime I will set it out. So they lock him up in jail. He don't care. Viet Nam vet he is 67 and drawing Social Security. and tells the jailer I aint gonna do any work. and Ive got some health problems you all are going to have to pay for. And two days later they turn him loose. The junk is still there and he keeps adding more. Havent said boo to him in over a year .The back yard is a hoarders paradise. The front yard well manicured and the house inside as neat as a pin.

 

That doesn't always work.... There was a local guy a few years ago that tried that and while he was in jail the city came in and hauled everything away to the crusher. They tried (and almost succeeded) to condemn his house too. Everybody waved lawyers around for a while, in the end he was out the cars but kept his house.

It ain't easy to tilt at windmills... LOL

 

Its his junk and his mothers house. and she has a reverse mortgage. another guy has the same problem and he had a collection since the 1940s. before his place was inside the city limits. they jailed him for two weeks. and he sued the mayor and chief of police for wrongful imprisionment. And won a huge monetary judgment against them. the had their pension taken away. those two have since died. and we now have a new mayor elected in 2016 that isn't a pretty police. last spring we had a record flood and the levee broke flooding all of the lower parts of town. That guy has his plate full worrying about revenue shortfalls and the possibility of more flooding.

 

DITTO!

 

Lots of good reasons on this thread why you need to live in an area where zoning laws are enforced along with the benefits of living where there is an HOA. I like having the money I have invested in my property protected. I can't afford not to.

 

Here they add unpaid zoning fines onto your Property Tax bill. Don't pay and your land/house goes to tax sale in 180 days. After 2 90 day warnings.

 

yes if you own something they could find a way to attach it. There are thousands of parcels of tax land in Arkansas for sale By the COSl. The property could be bought for as little as $25. However the unpaid SID taxes levied against them are more than the land is worth. I knew a guy bought over a hundred acres of tax land in Sharp County. several parcels that averaged about 5 acres each. and was sick when he learned about the SID taxes. I told him sell the timber recoup your money and don't pay the taxes let the state have it back. And he did and made a small profit.

 

And that's exactly why they have such things as zoning and HOA.s ect. The problem is when they start infringing on the rights of folks who have been conducting a activity long before the Zoning laws where passed. My self I live 11 miles from the city limits. And the State degsignated both HWYs at my corner as Senic Routes. And sent me letters demanding I remove my hoard or construct a approved fence. You are supposed to be exempt from ex post facto laws. And the Highway dept is not a legislature and cannot make up laws. So My eldest son is a lawyer he sent them a letter and told them if a certain type of fence is needed they would have to build and pay for it. Never heard anything back from them.