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Old 01-19-2009, 08:06 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,263 posts, read 61,014,574 times
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We do building permits. We have no inspectors though. It is all about tax assessment.

One permit is good for 5 years of building, you can list as many structures on one permit as you wish, and it encourages you to use more pages if needed.

A permit costs $75.

So I listed our house, a livestock stable, an equipment barn, and a guest house, on our permit.
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Old 01-20-2009, 01:22 PM
 
Location: NE Nebraska
84 posts, read 404,728 times
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Do people find rural zoning restrictive? How about controlling the use of land more than the specifics like building codes, landscaping, plant life etc.? Has any place approved regulations on lighting that restricts the type of lighting in order to "preserve" darkness.
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Old 01-20-2009, 02:37 PM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
45,000 posts, read 59,991,288 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madpie View Post
Do people find rural zoning restrictive? How about controlling the use of land more than the specifics like building codes, landscaping, plant life etc.? Has any place approved regulations on lighting that restricts the type of lighting in order to "preserve" darkness.
Calvert County, MD has outdoor lighting restrictions. That came about when we started getting people moving out here from more urban areas and they were freaked out with darkness and started putting streetlights all around their houses and complaining that their rural road was too dark.

Heckuva run-on sentence.
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Old 01-20-2009, 02:38 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,263 posts, read 61,014,574 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madpie View Post
Do people find rural zoning restrictive? How about controlling the use of land more than the specifics like building codes, landscaping, plant life etc.? Has any place approved regulations on lighting that restricts the type of lighting in order to "preserve" darkness.
Restrictive in what manner?



We are free to clear land, plow it under and farm. Or plant trees, or keep it fallow.

Or put it pads, and sewers, and electric hookups and begin a trailer park; if we wanted.

Who is 'controlling' land use?



Bazillion candle-power outdoor lights are popular among urban folks. I see a few around, but after a while most folks here, leave them off.

There is no need to light up your property to look like daylight. Unless your afraid of something.

I do see them mounted on some folk's barns, but I rarely see any of them turned on. I think it is a common thing that folks do when they move here.
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Old 01-20-2009, 03:35 PM
 
Location: Central Texas
20,958 posts, read 45,220,196 times
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We've had quite a few folks move out to the country who are clearly afraid of the dark. Sad, really - these are usually the same people who are shocked, SHOCKED!, that there are animals next door and that they actually have an odor and make noise, that there is hunting during dove season (as there has been for generations), that there are no sidewalks, that people don't mow their "lawns" (pastures), etc. One wonders just what property they were looking at when they bought it.
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Old 01-20-2009, 07:04 PM
 
Location: NE Nebraska
84 posts, read 404,728 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by forest beekeeper View Post
Restrictive in what manner?
We are free to clear land, plow it under and farm. Or plant trees, or keep it fallow.

Or put it pads, and sewers, and electric hookups and begin a trailer park; if we wanted.

Who is 'controlling' land use?
You hit what I was asking about with the trailer park. Many places with zoning would require a permit or re-zoning in order to install a trailer park.

By restrictive I am talking about regulating the color or style of a house in the country. Another restriction that is greater than just controlling land use would be to require building codes and do inspections of new buildings.

By regulating land use I am referring to allowing a trailer park in a certain zone or an industrial park in another. Regulating land use can limit the number of houses in a farming area or requiring a platted subdivision to be approved prior to groundbreaking. Land use in many rural areas is simply controlling livestock numbers and creating setbacks between livestock uses and houses.
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Old 01-20-2009, 07:08 PM
 
Location: The Woods
18,337 posts, read 26,382,711 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madpie View Post
You hit what I was asking about with the trailer park. Many places with zoning would require a permit or re-zoning in order to install a trailer park.

By restrictive I am talking about regulating the color or style of a house in the country. Another restriction that is greater than just controlling land use would be to require building codes and do inspections of new buildings.

By regulating land use I am referring to allowing a trailer park in a certain zone or an industrial park in another. Regulating land use can limit the number of houses in a farming area or requiring a platted subdivision to be approved prior to groundbreaking. Land use in many rural areas is simply controlling livestock numbers and creating setbacks between livestock uses and houses.
Why would you want that though?
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Old 01-20-2009, 08:11 PM
 
Location: Nebraska
4,176 posts, read 10,656,516 times
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I can relate to the lighting issue.

When we first moved here we had a problem with the wiring in the barns (behind the house, still in town limits, but about 200 yards back from the house). It got pretty cold here the first week of October, and we had to turn on the trough heater, and unfortunately it was on the same circuit as the pole parn lights. (Pole barns are three sided structures here.) That week DH had to go out and rewire everything, so that the heater could run without the lights being on! All those lights took away our stars and the beauty of the deep dark nights. Plus the barn lights being on made our neighbors think something was wrong! ("No, I didn't make DH sleep in the barn this week, and we don't have any baby critters - yet!") I don't understand the desperate need to have every step lit up like a city street! I can't imagine what they'd think of the back 40, with no lights AT ALL anywhere, and you can't even see the town's lights!

But I agree to some extent about not having someone throw up a McMansion development or a trailer park right next door - between added noise, traffic, and runoffs and other things, anyone who wants to build something that causes harm to their neighbor's property ought to be held responsible. And so many people will not sue, will just complain.... or sell out and move. I don't like zoning, but unless people can have and enforce their right to enjoy their property without having sixteen families and 14 cars up and down the driveway next to their property, driving over their plants and endangering their children,, or midnight drag racing up and down the street, or having to put up with the drainage from other folks' property, then zoning is a last ditch alternative. Sometimes what people put up next door devalues the property around them - I wouldn't want a chemical plant or a paper mill next door. But I hope I'm smart enough and stay enough on top of things, and attend enough city board meetings, to forestall that.

As for what colors people paint their houses - well, I had them mix the trim paint color for this 100-year-old house. It is bright white with Husker Red (actually it is a dark bing cherry color) trim. The board fences in front are bright white with Husker-Red roses on each post, too. When my neighbors asked why, I told them - I decorate for Christmas, and I love red-and-white! It used to be a drab blue and grey... now it just sparkles, and looks so clean and bright; all of the fine structural details and gingerbread just POP. I don't care what color people paint their houses - I know what I want mine to look like. Another older house here in town is grass-green with lavender trim... so what? Happy people clean and paint and express themselves. House color is a personal as the individual, and shouldn't be zoned by a board or council or group. If you don't like it - don't look!
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Old 01-21-2009, 06:33 AM
 
Location: NE Nebraska
84 posts, read 404,728 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arctichomesteader View Post
Why would you want that though?
Just an example. You move out in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. You build you cabin, put in a small vegetable garden and a small shed. You are out cutting firewood one day and hear heavy equipment on the neighboring property. You walk over to check it out and find they are removing all the trees. You talk to one of the workers and ask what's going on. You find out they discovered gold and are starting a strip mining operation that will be right up to your property line. Pretty soon you will be able to see a 500' deep hole out of your window. You won't be able to sleep at night because of the lights and the constant beeping created by the trucks and other equipment backing up. Your little paradise just went to hell in a hand basket and there's not a thing you can do about it.

Now for a more realistic situation, even though the above scenario happened to a friend of mine in Wyoming, but it was coal shale they were after not gold. You have been raising hogs on your farm for two generations. You have around 2,000 pigs farrow to finish and a few cattle as well. Suddenly, you find out your neighbor just sold off three acres less than a quarter-mile down wind from your livestock operation. The building of a house starts when the winds are in a different direction. As the house is finished the winds change and the full smell of your livestock operation floats into the new owner's nose.

Needless to say they are upset. They file a nuisance suit against you. They file a suit for failing to disclose your presence against your neighbor and they file to have the valuation on their $250,000 house reduced because of the smell from your farm. Guess what, the judge agrees with them and you find yourself with a $2,000,000 judgment against you. Your neighbor also loses the suit and his farm as well. Guess what, this actually happened in Missouri a couple of years ago. Two farmers out of business and a happy former big city family living close by. If there was zoning in this county, the house would have never been allowed to be built that close to a livestock operation thus avoiding all of this. Ironically the two farmers were key in getting the county not to adopt zoning.
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Old 01-21-2009, 07:37 AM
 
Location: Central Texas
20,958 posts, read 45,220,196 times
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Does Missouri not have a Right to Farm act?

Ottawa County, Michigan, produced a delightful brochure (http://www.co.ottawa.mi.us/CoGov/Depts/Planning/pdf/AgDisclaimer.pdf - broken link)(complete with scratch and sniff manure odor sample) for folks contemplating moving to the country.
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