Westford, VT made the news

Heckuva piece of artwork there.

He could call it a "Vermont weather stick". If it is wet, it is raining...

 

WeldrDave would probably love that artwork to grace NJ's State House lawn.
Guy builds middle finger statue to get back at town : theCHIVE

 

We had a resident in our city that wanted to convert a building into an antique shop. His permit was denied and he put a bunch of old toilets out on the front lawn with certain board member titles on signs sticking out of the toilets. It was pretty amusing at the time.

 

That's what happens when you have to deal with these "Cow Chit Senators" in these little "Fifedom's" they rule !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Years ago my parents built a house, and my dad GC'd it. When the building inspector was doing his final inspector, the duck was walking through the house with his hands clasped behind his back, motioning for his payoff even though everything was legit. My dad slapped him 5 instead

Inspector told my dad he'd never get an occupancy permit and left. Little did he know that my grandfather was FAR more connected than him.

 

This is a pretty funny story. I like it!

I also liked this comment in the comment section.

'Let's not make this out as though it's someone who wants to plant an apple tree instead of a rose bush and got served with a summons. This is someone who just decided to move his commercial business onto his residential property. If it were my mountain view that was about to be destroyed by this guy's warehouse I would be upset about it too.'

 

Last permit i got was for the shop, lady at the permit office actually filled it out for me
She asked me questions, I answered, she wrote it up
It was supposed to take a week or two for everything to be legit but they let us pour the pad early as they could understand that winter was coming

 

One of my buddies want d to build a nice house on a few acres that bordered a housing addition. Some people there wer fighting against his driveway permit. Several of the homes had backyards about 20 long.

He realized his property was zoned agricultural. Put two hogs in a small area right along the fence line. In about a week the jerks came around to his wishes. Got his permit, and had a hog roast to celebrate.

 

TurboDiesel , problem really arises from towns when they were small, putting in zoning that was unclear. Like I am zoned residential / agricultural. This gentleman property is zoned residential / commercial. He works on bigger trucks so he needs a bigger shop. Vermont has a problem with urban sprawl. Because the genius decided that for years you could get away without engineered septic plans if you purchased over 10 Acres.

Now the residential people don't want a commercial building in their backyard. But did they petition to change the zoning? no. Did they buy the extra land so they can maintain their View? No

They're trying to get their way through the town Council and stopping this guy from legally doing on his property that he pays taxes for.

 

Mine too.
and I built a ridiculously large garage in front of the neighbors house. 7 feet higher than allowed by township regs.
The township guy asked me how I get along with the neighbors and I told him good. He said well, I could get in trouble for doing this and wrote the permit anyhow. So rules are not really rules...
Residential allows a 20 ft high out building. Ag is no limit. My garage is 27' and they said ok because, well, its a gray area...

 

I understand TurboDiesel, my neighbor is a Dairy farmer. The person that bought the house at the edge of the cornfield. Complains every year at the town because of the smell of cow manure. And is trying to prevent him from spreading manure on his fields.
He came to my house, to enlist my support in his endeavor. I declined.

Farmer and I get along real well!
As the new guy in town, it was not hard to figure out, farm been in his family for 200 years. The 3 Mile Road to get to my house is named after the farmer. He abuts 3,500 feet of my property line. I also purchased property upwind of farm not down wind
In short, common sense & courtesy go a long way

 

It really sounds to me like this guy needs a lawyer to put a little 'pressure' on the town council

 

It really does pizz me off that city folk move out to paradise than complain about the smell...

My buddy just built a 1000 ft barn/pig farm. He has 4800 pigs in it. You shoulda heard the complaints, threats of protest and comments. Air pollution, water pollution and 'pigs getting out and eating the neighbors flowers'...

 

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner here!

 

May be cow chit to the new neighbor, but it is bread & butter to the farmer..................................... I get a real laugh out of these flat landers who buy a property next to a existing farm or commercial business or airport, and then set out to try to pi$$ up everybody's leg to try to get what THEY want. Good for you CbVT. for hanging with the farmer.

 

I will confirm, being a professional engineer and in the land development business for 25+ years, that this kind of BS happens far more often than you all realize. Over half the permit hearings wind up in some kind of fight, which usually ends up with the applicant footing the bill for a whole lot of design changes and an occasional lawsuit. My greatest successes with land development have come from projects where we have a great deal of cooperation from the owner/developer regarding design standards. In other words - read the damm rules and design exactly to fit those rules. The boards around here cannot legally deny a permit if you meet the regulations. It is NOT arbitrary. What they can do, however, is nitpick you to death and drag the hearings out forever. Yes, there are a lot of jackwagon control freaks that love to populate these boards.

I think we are not getting enough of either side of this story. I am pretty sure this guy has neighbors who object to his project, and I am also pretty sure that he is unwilling or unable to comply with the letter of the written zoning bylaws.

While I have always been on the side of the developer, sometimes they are so stubborn that I wind up shaking my head and asking them how long they want to drag the process out. I let more than one client go because they simply refused to budge.