"jw" wrote in message
oups.com...
| soapbox...
|
| Would you say the same thing if the previous owner had a buried fuel
| tank and didn't bother to tell you? Or an uncapped well, or a failed
| septic field, or who knows what thrown in the basement of the previous
| house before it was dozed, or ..... Legally don't have to.
|
| It's not about the financial value of said property. It's about being
| a good steward of the land you have the privilege of occupying for the
| time being.

Absolutely. Who said trust, but verify?

| The mentality that is MINE I can do whatever the hell I want with it is
| such an offensive, selfish opinion that is typical of so many
| Americans. No wonders most of the world hates us. We have no regard
| for anyone but ourselves.

I won't touch the second comment, but here in America, private property
is a cornerstone of our powerful economic system. Not to say that zoning,
well meant but ill-advised, hasn't been encroaching on that valued right in
various degrees. Citizens of the world may state that they hate America,
but they love Americans and would love dearly to be one. We didn't get to
this point so quickly (a mere 200 or so years) without private property and
many other unalienable rights.

| I have recently dealt with someone who had the same stance as you. He
| wanted to build this huge garage that didn't fit his lot.

Far from the same stance, but I see where you're going. Setbacks have a
good reason, most common being fire, which is a reasonable zoning issue. If
this fellow wants to build on _someone else's_ property or in a reasonably
restricted area, then we have nothing in common. I call those people
assholes.... or politicians, take your pick.

| So as to not be taken for a liberal, or in favor of government
| controls, I do agree that people should be allowed to do what they feel
| is appropriate for their property AS LONG AS their is still some sort
| of "jury of peers" that tries to keep things proper. I am going to
| make the wild assumption that you do not live in a rural area. I do,
| and am extremely tired of ignorant city dwellers moving to the country
| and ruining well established agricultural land.

I grew up in somewhat rural East Texas, which was really nice, but am
living up here north of Seattle because I came up here after a woman and
wound up staying for a good job. Still got the woman but I miss the area I
grew up in. We have something worse than what you're discussing here. The
city folks (Seattle and the like) are working hard making it difficult to do
anything other than farm with your farmland, but on the other hand, they
also love the folks who do everything they can to make it harder and harder
to be a farmer. Now that the farmer can't make any money farming his little
or medium sized plot, he wants to get out, but nobody wants to buy farmland
because it can't be developed or turned into megafarms. When he dies, the
gov'nr takes most of the farm and he's finally out of farming. Not many
other ways to get out, it seems. That kind of folk **** me off the most.

Or they move out to
| the country and then complain that their neighbors are "making too much
| noise", "making too much dust", "blocking highways with big equipment",
| "they smell", etc. Got news for you, we were here first. You can go
| back where you came from, or accept that we are part of your
| neighborhood. We won't change just because you don't like it.

I had a neighbor as a kid that raised pigs and had a furhouse for
awhile. Some afternoons in August the stench was unbearable, but there
wasn't much we could do about it, and didn't even try. Wasn't worth it.
Eventually he found another venture, as usual, and most of the smell went
away. Driving around here when the remaining farmers are fertilizing their
fields with manure, my kids now speak first and observe that it's the smell
of money. The cookie cutter housing developments along the hills are just
gonna have to get used to it until the farmers have all been run out as
noted above.

| Off my soap box for now. I'm a little sensitive on this issue.

That's actually a good thing!

As I
| stated, I don't think the gentleman in question did anything at all
| wrong.

We agree a lot more than you suspect, but I didn't spend much time
explaining how stewardship of resources isn't just a statement that you can
do whatever you want with your resources, but you have to manage them for
maximum value and longevity. No right minded rancher will kill his entire
herd, even though he could if he wanted, because now he has nothing to start
a new one with. Wildlife departments, much to the dismay of animal huggers
everywhere, have to manage the stock of wildlife not just for hunters,
because there needs to be enough to keep reproducing, without starving
themselves from overbreeding. Proper stewardship isn't always mandated by
law, but even animals don't **** where they eat.

CRM