Town Officials Wouldn’t Let Them Restore Two Old Houses. They Read The Fine Print And Decided To Demolish Them And Build Again Instead.
by Matthew Gilligan
Things can get tricky when it comes to historic houses and buildings.
Local organizations get involved and in some cases, they try to make things incredibly difficult for the property owners.
But this person did their research and took things in an unexpected direction.
Check out what happened!
Zoning and Permit Shenanigans.
“We were prohibited from renovating two “historic”, but very primitive and neglected 1890 cottages on a lakeside lot.
The town wasn’t on board with the idea…
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.
Look at this…
Our attorney pointed out that no variance was required if we tore down the 2 old houses and built just one 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.”
Reddit users shared their thoughts.
This individual shared their thoughts.
Another reader chimed in.
This person didn’t hold back.
This Reddit user had a lot to say.
And this individual shared their thoughts.
It always pays to read the fine print…
No matter which side you’re on.
Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.
Categories: STORIES
Tags: · houses, housing, malicious compliance, old houses, picture, reddit, top, zoning
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