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Old 05-31-2017, 09:40 AM
 
2 posts, read 1,676 times
Reputation: 10

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We just bought our house about a year ago and our neighbor offered to sell us a piece of their property which is already cleared. This would be nice to be able to build a shop.

Talking to the land use dept @ the county and they're saying that our lots are non-conforming. They were legal at the time the houses were built, but since then, zoning has changed to r-5. We're both slightly under 5 acres. They say the only thing we could do is an equal swap of land, which does me no good.

This just seems maddening, especially because our sale was recorded improperly cause the title company had the wrong legal description, so a big chunk of our land is now legally owned by the sellers. So if they were able to do that; make my new sale less acreage than before, why couldn't that be done again?

Why can't someone do whatever they want with their own land, especially if we still end up with the exact same acreage and shape between our two houses!?

I read the unified development code and it seems pretty clear that a lot reconfiguration can be done on non-conforming lots, assuming they were legal at the time they were built/created.

Section 40.530.010
Section 40.210.010

Any ideas? Would it be worth it to go through the Lot Reconfiguration process with $1k+ in Administrative fees, plus surveys?
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Old 05-31-2017, 10:47 AM
 
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,660 posts, read 57,778,624 times
Reputation: 46126
I am afraid it will be far more costly than $1k + Admin fees + Survey, but if you plan on staying it may be worth it.
Apparently your seller owns adjacent property. I would FIRST work with them to resolve a proper title / boundary.

Go talk to a land use Attorney that has many SUCCESSFUL petitions before CC Land Use Planning (They are all in bed together, and feather each other VERY well, many have been previous Land Use Planning employees with the county, and existing Land Use County Employees are grooming their future employ in the Attorney / petitioner role). Many are linked with Ex Commissioners turned lucrative Land Developers /and investors.

Be prepared, and do not be "maddened" or combative, as you WILL comply. Or you will not succeed.
Remember your hearings / petitions are not 'real', they are just rubber stamp formalities. (The REAL stuff takes place BEFORE (and after) the hearing in private meetings.)

Choose your battles, for many it is moving out of Clark County.
If you have an ideal place with ideal neighbors it MIGHT be worth the cost and battle. (if you can afford your future taxes and battles)

It will take forever. Get used to it. (I fought it for 25 yrs before I decided to 'comply - do what the insist (as stupid and expensive as it is) keep my trap shut (while in their presence of the presence of their minions).
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Old 06-02-2017, 10:59 AM
 
2 posts, read 1,676 times
Reputation: 10
The sellers owned and sold to us 3.6 acres. the title company messed up on the legal description, which created a new tax parcel of only what was described, leaving about 2 acres with the folks I bought the property from. I think they have no idea until they get a tax bill I suppose.

The title mistakes go a couple sales back, so they have re-recorded the deeds properly, so I should be back to where I should be @ 3.6 total within the next week.

My adjacent neighbors on the east side have about .5-.75 acres (guessing) of cleared land. Their parcel is currently about 2 acres total.

So really all we would like to do is remove this piece from their property and add it to ours. We do not want to create a new parcel, and we do not want to build additional houses.

If you take the entire census tract, we end up with <1 house per 5 acres, possibly more as there are many properties with 5-40 acres in our tract.

So simple logic says that it's not our fault our properties are non-conforming... if the R-5 zoning is in place to prevent more than 1 house per 5 acres, and we aren't affecting anything like roads, parking, population density, acres per house, etc, I really don't understand why humans couldn't use logic and reasoning to let other humans do what they want with their own property that they own when it doesn't effect the overall density in our tract.

If it's going to require attorneys and 25 yrs, I might just put this one to bed. I have a very low tolerance for people abusing their power, allowing ego to trump logic, reasoning and common decency.

What was your situation and what did you have to comply with?
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Old 06-02-2017, 04:37 PM
 
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,660 posts, read 57,778,624 times
Reputation: 46126
I've done many land swaps, boundary line adjustments, re-zones. But don't intend to ever do anymore in Clark County. I have paid my dues
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