When unfair zoning rules block your plans, sometimes the best revenge is using the rules to your advantage.

Imagine owning a piece of land for decades and dreaming of turning it into a business, only to have your plans sabotaged by a neighbor with connections. Would you walk away defeated? Or would you find a way to turn their actions against them?

In the following story, one man finds himself dealing with this exact predicament and opts for the latter. Here’s how it went down.

Guy wanted to open a sporting goods store. Restaurant owner next door told this city to rezone it as agriculture. Guy couldn’t use land for commercial reasons. Guy complied.

Once upon a time, there was a man who owned a piece of land next to a thriving restaurant.

This man had owned the land for a long time (22 years), and it was undeveloped. He had bought it cheaply, but it had great highway frontage, and he had always dreamed of building a little used cars lot or gun shop on the tract as his retirement pastime.

Now, the man had had the tract zoned as a commercial lot when he bought it, but when news leaked about the upcoming development, the restaurant owners petitioned the zoning board to overturn the commercial zoning and re-institute the original agricultural zoning.

When things didn’t go his way, he simply chose another use for the land.

By the way, all land in the mythical state of Kentucky is zoned as agricultural by default. This was unfair, illegal, and generally rude, but the restaurateur’s brother was the county zoning commissioner, so things naturally turned against our would-be entrepreneur.

After fighting the good, clean, play-by-the-rules sort of battle and losing, our would-be entrepreneur gave up. He decided to accept the county zoning.

Not to see the tract go idly unused, the enterprising retiree decided to pursue another business venture. He raised hogs. Lots of them. Two hundred and four, to be exact, on his little 12-acre tract.

For those of you unfamiliar with the climate in time-lost Kentucky, the summers are downright southern in their humidity and heat. As you can imagine, a rather malignant odor grew up around the thriving hog farm. Patrons of the restaurant ate elsewhere, anywhere else, to be exact.

The zoning commissioner may have changed his mind, but the farmer sure didn’t.

In a matter of weeks, the zoning commissioner reversed his earlier ruling, returning the commercial status of the lot. It is another caveat of Kentucky zoning law that land can always be used for a purpose lesser on the scale of hierarchy than its current zoning.

Everyone, especially the restaurateur, was surprised when the hog farm remained in operation. Nothing, not even substantial financial offers, could convince the new farmer to quit his now beloved occupation.

Exactly three months and four days after the opening of the hog farm, the restaurant closed its doors for good. The farmer, in a fit of depression, ceased hog farming and decided to open a small sporting goods store instead. It remains there to this day, alongside his newly acquired restaurant.

Eek! The smell must’ve been unbearable.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit have to say about the man’s story.

This person is upset the farmer made people lose their jobs.

You smell hog farms long before you see them.

Here’s a great point.

Never realized tire repair shops were stinky.

Apparently, hog farming is a good threat.

The landowner had to do something. Maybe next time, the restaurant owner will mind his own business and welcome a new neighbor.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.