My city just passed a new firewood storage ordinance

That's just wrong. Just for a reference on your 10x20 area allowed… my woodshed is 8x20, split in 2 sections. Stacked 3 cords easily in one section that was about 6' high. Bet you could easily stack 7 cord if you went at least 6' high.

Did the town offer any reason for this new restriction? Are they making money on a permit fee or something?

 

Stack 8 feet high and you will be ok.

 

They also mentioned tool & equipment storage, and some garbage about maintaining property values.

 

Your boys may have had their way with our bball team but we got you licked on dumb a$$ firewood ordinances

 

If you put up a roofed area. Cover the sides with tarps or something. Keep a dirt floor, you may have an area that then enclosed. Just ck local codes so you are not taxed on that structure. Junk etc. out of view seldom brings oversight. A neighboring town here limits the wood to ten cords. They did that to stop people from constantly running chain saws and selling wood in neighborhoods. One guy was bring in lots of wood, cutting it all week, every week and selling it.
What ever you can store out of sight shouldn't get you in trouble.
The other thing would be to challenge the rules, maybe get a petition to change them.

 

My old neighborhood had ordinances about RV and travel trailer storage. Some people had nice RVs and others looked like the Beverly Hillbillies came to visit. It was a major issue and lots of people were upset. Common sense would dictate that someone that maintains their property shouldn't have issues with the law. That gets subjective though, I know a horder who actually thinks his pile of crap is maintained and orderly.

Best of luck with the B.S. city regulations. Don't try to fight them with common sense. I lived in the Dayton area a while back, Xenia, specifically. I left that area and never looked back.

 

200sq feet is a circle just short of 16 feet in diameter. I'd make these things look small and I wouldn't forget a flagpole up top for an American flag.

 

Forget what you read and wait and see
I don't even want to get into this ordinance thing, Some are just stupid
They gave me a hard time about a truck I wasn't driving parked in my driveway

 

That sucks. Got any space in your garage or basement for already dried wood?

 

I had a car that was parked in my driveway not tagged for three months and they put a warning sticker on it. I peeled it off, went down behind the police station and put it on a cruiser that had been there for 6 months with no plates!

Gary

 

I will have to store some in the garage. I have some friends with a farm who I believe would let me stack out there. This is going to push me into looking harder at a pellet stove. I have a tri level with the wood burner in the lower level. I wanted to add another on the main floor, and pellet would be the way to go there. The garage would be stockpiled with a 2-3 tons of pellets.

 

What is there reason to come up with that figure? What does having stacked wood on YOUR land effect that involves the city?

I've always believed that people need to not concern themselves with neighbors activities/property unless it directly effects them. Not just a "nuisance".

I live it at my brother's place. He has around 100 acres and basically no neighbors. Can shoot guns on his land, cut firewood, fab work, etc... No worries about annoying anyone.

 

Does the ordinance only apply to outside storage? Would a wood shed solve the issue (assuming you have room for one)?

 

If you do have friends who would let you dry your wood on their farm… looks as tho you could stay with fireword, no matter what ridiculous rules your town comes up with. Added benefit of being at a farm . Hang in there.

 

I would write a proposal (sources cited) pointing out that by limiting the amount of 'wood drying area' the city will now be facing increased air polution issues due to green wood being burnt as well as an increase in residential fires. I'm sure the city is not rolling in dough and having housing inspectors rolling through the neighborhoods doing inspections, it's mostly done on complaints these days (at least in these parts). How many cord do you have now? 200 sq. ft. can fit a lot of wood? Stack it 6.4 ft. and thats 10 cord. You can store it at my place if you need to.