County office responsibilities (zoning, house, closing)

[cherie44]

I have a question regarding the responsibilites of county offices. We purchased a commercial property with a marine dealership on it that had been there for 12-13 years. We went to the county and applied for three licenses (sales, service, repair) obtained them all and had them for 4 years actually they are active until sept. We have a buyer and he went to check the zoning and was told that it was not zoned for the use we had been using it for. I went to speak to zoning about this and they told me licensing does not have anything to do with zoning?? I told her that we had a buyer and the business was closed, she said that was good because otherwise we would be fined daily. When talking to permitting I was told that had we still been operating we would have been grandfathered in. I told him our licenses were still active but he said we had closed the busness so we would have to go through rezoning. This has caused our closing to be at the 4+ months of waiting on rezoning. We could have closed in 2weeks otherwise (owner financing) Is there someting wrong with this picture?? Again it has been run as a marine dealership for 17 years. They say it is Industrial Warehouse, and cannot be used as commercial so we are "decreasing" our zoning to commercial and we have been told that we will not ever be able to get IW again if our buyers default.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by cherie44

I went to speak to zoning about this and they told me licensing does not have anything to do with zoning??

That sounds right - licensing does not cross-reference with zoning. I think you'd find that anywhere (any city).

When you did your own investigation into zoning when you first bought the property, what did you find? Do you have proof that the city has your zoning incorrectly listed?