No Service or Repair of vehicles!

Heck, a lot of the counties around here don't even have zoning laws. Dontcha just love rural life!

 

One is redundant, the other isn't.

 

I've had friends in the Bay area be told that they couldn't wash sea Lion and sea gull shit off their docks because it would contaminate the water too. Guess the clowns making that rule always figured that sea lions got out of the water and went to the out house.

They have that same no car washing nonsense in some areas around Seattle but that area is getting Californicated all too quickly.

 

The first thing I thought of was are you really "repairing or maintaning a vehicle" or are you building one?! Big difference! I'm with the torches and pitchforks camp. Call a lawyer, call your congressman, call the local news, Call every pertainent vintage automotive orginzation in that tiny little state of yours and make some noise!

I do know that certain poeple in local city government and historic preservation shudder when my name is mentioned, because in the couple of times in the last twenty years that I have been dicked with, I have made everybody's life difficult. Not to mention, being in the right. I keep a good relationship with my neighbors, and don't make any excesive noise at odd hours. My stuff is all behind a block wall and out of view, too. It's pretty easy after all is said and done.

 

What I don't get is how perceived property value got to be dependent on the invalidation of its capital value. All economic reason would suggest the exact opposite. In all rationality a commercially viable property ought to be worth more than a passive dormitory.

Something is causing considerations of vanity and status (the white cuff syndrome) to trump considerations of economic survival and prosperity. One would expect that to occur here and there but by no kind of means to predominate.

 

Can't do repairs on your own cars at your place?
Buy a few rusted-out, beat up, and/or burnt Edsel's/70's Caprices/Granada's/etc and put them in your front yard. Claim the brakes are locked up and anyone that moves them would technically be attempting to repair them.

 

I've seen so many of these threads on The HAMB - I thought America was really big on personal freedom

I live in Chester, UK - it's a densely populated city and most houses there are semi-detached (i.e. joined to the neighbouring property on one side). If I want to work on my car in my front garden I do so. If I want to store a parts car on bricks then I will and would not expect to have a comment from any neighbour - neither would I comment if they did so. It would be their business and none of mine. I would not expect the City Council to get involved unless I was clearly running a business for profit. They would need evidence of this though.

If I was making a lot of noise very late at night or early in the morning then a complaint from neighbours would result in an officer of the City Council actually recording the noise to verify that the story from the complaining resident was true. They would not act on an unsubstaniated complaint.

 

Like Blackjack (Hi Geoff!) I live in the UK. I have one scrap car in my drive and work on my POS '55 daily next to it. I have oil stains, lots of them and other associated junk. I work on my wifes Anglia project in my workshop with lots of noise. No one would ever tell me I was out of order or complain.
I would, like BJ expect a call for late night noise but the burden of proof is on the local authority to prove nuisance.
How does any one put up with this nazi crap?

 

Hey Ned, it`s called zoning. Protects us all to some extent. You might not be ok with it if it occurred next door...

 

The word "Service " is key here . A wrecker comming to even pick up an automobile is in violation of this law. Hummmmmmmmm, lawsuit anyone ????????? scrubba

 

All good points above, depending on how far you want to take things. Laws often leave lots of room for interpretation, both on the good and bad side if them. Making someones life difficult can be easy and very legal.

Bob

 

Now that's pretty funny right there.

I was told by a Park Ranger in Colorado that I was traumatizing a fox by petting it. Hell it came over to me I figured it would be traumatizing it not to pet it but what do I know.

 

Next time, stick with beavers

 

Actually even though a junk yard in your driveway does affect property values in an adverse way most of the time there is a way around that when the powers to be bring it up.

If property values go down then property taxes should also go down. Real Property is taxed based on the value of said property. I find it interesting that they never mention market value but property values when it would be to their advantage to mention current market value. This year my property taxes were raised because the county said that the value of my property went up, even though the current market value of my property has indeed gone down.

Anyway long story short I was outside working on my vehicle when the county tax accessor was here taking pictures. I made sure that he got a picture of me doing that very thing that drives property values down and asked that he send me a copy of the pic with the new tax assessment. He smiled and said, " Are you stirring the pot Mr. __________." I just smiled and he did indeed send me a copy of the pic along with the assessment which showed the difference in property value and taxation. (It pays to know folks). I in turn sent a copy of the accessment to the code nazzi that bothered me in the past.

I don't only stirr the pot on the HAMB, it is just my nature.

The truth is that it really never does any good to kick against the pricks.

Better off to hire an attorney what costs you a little today may very well save you a lot in the future.

Edit:

Just to add to this very important thread does anyone every feel like a jail house lawyer when they post on one of these types of threads?

 

I had to look up " redundant " in the dictionary, it read- see " redundant ".

 

Redundant - its like the 'beaner says, "I am not crazy and neither am I."

 

Ned:
There are various methods of establishing value and you can't focus only on the income approach, meaning a property's value depends on the income stream it produces. While you are correct, that sleeping doesn't produce income, people need a place to sleep and will pay more for a property that allows them to sleep in peace.

Freedom has many meanings. It's not just the freedom to do whatever you please, it's also the freedom from others disturbing you. Am I free to shit in my own backyard, or are we more civilized than that?

How would you feel if your neighbor started a pig farm? How would you feel about buying a house next to a pig farm, or a factory, or a junkyard?

 

That expression reminds me how " your never alone with a schizophrenic ".

 

Mike,
Once again at the risk of sounding political even though "Freedom" gets bandied around quit a bit and no doubt has been used way past its usefulness in more than one propaganda campaign the country was not founded on "freedom" it was founded on a simple principle, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

It sounds like the original question is not one of building a junk yard in the residential district or a pig farm or even crapping in his backyard. It is about a fella working on his own vehicle in his own garage. I think that one or more article of the afore mentioned phrase covers that.

Now onto the weightier matter at hand, is he really bothering someone by doing so? Or in fact is he infringing on someone else's right to achieve that simple principle when he is trying to do the same. It seems that he may be making too much noise and perhaps it is hard for us to judge as we are not really there.

Actually folks have mentioned before that I am never alone. Funny thing about that is that I am normally lonely.

Mr Nelson said it this way, ". . . he's never at home and he's always alone, even with someone he loves"

I am not sue what this has to do with anything but I have been wanting to post it for a long time, and so did I.

 

I know all about zoning. I deal with zoning approval applications all the time. After many years of doing so all I can say is that most zoning is good for little more than perpetuating artificial dependences. Far from objecting to a business next door, I currently pay a premium to live in a neighbourhood that has a healthy commercial land-use component - and this does not represent an exceptional situation. World-wide residential accommodation in mixed-use areas commands the highest rents and market values.

It's a moral issue, too, though. I really believe that every household ought to be entitled to put its property to economic use. It'd change neighbourhoods but it'd change business more. Anyone who cares about the viability of small-scale capital should see that.

I've got somewhat to say on the topic on my blog: see below.

The Victorians really tried to turn Chester into a medieval theme park, but somehow I don't think it's much worse off for that. At least The Rows survive; and if nothing else their uniqueness illustrates the vast diversity of architectural solutions the Middle Ages produced for combined living and working. Prague, Krakow, and Berne typified the colonnaded frontage, but none of them did the two-level thing. Medieval urban house types are worth studying for anyone who believes that it ought to be normal for families to own commercial or light-industrial accommodation.

 

I've lived in the state of NH my whole life and have never heard anything like that, it's gotta be a town/city ruling. I doubt it's anyplace here on the western side, as I've seen houses here that look like junkyards and no ones said anything. I know friends of mine and I have pushed the " 2 unregistered vehicles that can be seen from the road " law a few times.

 

About the "visible from the road" thing: and then they have the gall to require street setbacks!

 

porknbeaner:

I realize the original poster's problem and he has my sympathy, although I'd like to know more about why somebody complained (two sides to every story, etc.). Was he angle-grinding at midnight? Who knows?
My comments were pointed more towards the posters who like to proclaim "it's my property and I can do what I please because this country was founded on freedom" without recognizing that in a civilized society we make compromises and that our freedom is not unlimited. These same proclaimers would surely get their nose out of joint if one of their neighbors created a nuisance.

The bottom line is you can pick your friends, you can pick your neighborhood, or you can pick your nose, but you gotta be careful every time.

 

I put it down as a home office

 

I'm not suggesting using it as some sort of excuse when you're in front of the judge. I'm talking about wasting as much of the cops time as possible. Also, if 50 people are as riled up about the idiocy as you are and begin squawking, writing letters and complaining at the polls, more people will listen

 

Oh I agree. I think that we confuse freedom and our civil rights. There unfortunately is no right to build a hot rod, but fortunately there is also no civil right to rape, pillage or plunder.

I have a problem when one whiner in an entire neighborhood can get the powers to be to come down on you for something as petty as he works on his car in the garage or the driveway. My thinking is that it is not a noise issue at all because if it was there is no doubt a disturbing the peace ordinance. That would be instant revenue. You get a ticket to go to court and the judge fines you. There are seldom any proofs other than the cop says I heard the noise and it was excessive.

More often than not if there isn't some sort of blatant problem like the car staying strewn all over the driveway for months at a time it comes down to I don't like him because he isn't like me and I know if I complain to the correct people I can make him toe the line. That is where the life liberty and pursuit of happiness statement comes into play. It has nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with you live your life and I will live mine. If in fact I am doing something that in all reality infringes on that in your life then you have a legitimate beef and perhaps the powers to be should be informed. But if it is just something about me that you don't like then it falls under the mind your own damned business clause.


Disclaimer:

Not you as in you personally or me as in me personally but me and you as in the populace in general.

 

I know that's a very general statement but what happens when the city develops out to the pig farm, factory, or junkyard. The people that live in my area complain about the local dirt track that has been there for 75+ years because its loud noisy and dirty, even though it was there long before people built their houses around it. Wouldnt you expect it to be noisy? So if you buy a house next to someone that works on cars alot wouldnt that mean that it would be noisy? Some common sense goes along ways.

 

you should probably build a garage

 

I hear what your saying, those that complain should look before they leap. I'm talking about the opposite side of the same coin.