Preserving history is great, but sometimes zoning rules make it impossible to do anything practical.

So, what would you do if the town board blocked your renovation plans at every turn?

Would you give up?

Or would you find a way to work around their rules?

In today’s story, one homeowner deals with this very situation and asks a lawyer for help.

Here’s how it all unfolded.

Zoning and Permit Shenanigans

We were prohibited from renovating two “historic” but very primitive and neglected 1890 cottages on a lakeside lot.

A complete renovation of 2 homes on one lot required a zoning and septic variance, which the town refused.

The town really didn’t want us to make any exterior renovations, and we wanted to join the two houses by installing bathrooms between them, making one house from two.

The board said they were not prohibiting the renovations.

We were just limited to renovating no more than 20% of each home each year, as limited by town law, requiring 10 years to complete.

Insane.

Attorneys are great at finding workarounds.

Our attorney pointed out that no variance was required if we tore down the 2 old houses and built just 1 new house (regardless of size) if we stayed within the footprint of the original buildings.

Neither of the permits to demolish and build new required town board approval.

The town compliance officer had no choice but to grant both permits, much to the annoyance of the town board, which wanted the “historic” buildings to stay.

To top it off, by forcing us to build a new home used 12 months of the year, the town was forced to improve the town-owned road so that it could be plowed in winter. Revenge.

That’s definitely not what they wanted.

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about this situation.

This person tells a similar story.

Permit fees can get costly.

Here’s an urban planner’s opinion.

If they wanted to keep them, they should’ve done something.

This is a sad situation.

It’s crazy that the town lost these historic homes to red tape and bureaucracy.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.