Staying friendly with local elected officials

[Johnny]

I've said this before, but it never hurts to be on good terms with elected officials, public service workers and bureaucrats.

I'm in the midst of building a chicken coop. I had a design idea that would grow the size of the structure in a sort of zoning "grey area". I ran my plan by the township supervisor and zoning guy. Surprisingly, they both couldn't have cared less, asked no questions, and gave me a big thumbs up. The county tax assessor was there as well. All everybody wanted to do is talk deer hunting, fishing, harassing one another, and telling funny stories. Yep. Tough day at the office!

They all know me from my previous service on the planning commission. We've always got along well, even when we had policy disagreements. It's not fair, but if the average citizen walked in with the same questions as I did, I don't think it would have been as easy. They could have easily erred on the side of caution and disapproved my whole plan, and there's nothing I could do about it.

[44044]

I live in the country…

We don’t need permission to build

Except for wells and septic systems

they have to be 100’ apart…

[aviator]

If you think it's bad, try to get something approved in the Florida Keys. My middle son is re-constructing a house down there, he gutted it out completely and is building fresh, new roof, new bathrooms (which he is a plumbing contractor), new sliding doors and windows (which he also owns a company for that), all new electric.....a new seawall which must be approved by the Army Corp of Engineering so he can build a new dock with a boat lift....all and all he had to hire a local lawyer down there to push the paperwork for him, the city does not like outsiders doing things. Even to clear a past lien on the house for something that was corrected years ago and that was to be cleared at closing I had to threaten them with legal action, it's a mafia down there.

[aviator]

Miami is almost as bad, during the housing crash we grabbed two properties for our boys, the oldest one has a great two story house on a lake and it was a foreclosure. Now, foreclosures must pass a county inspection prior to the sale to insure they have no code violations, so I had it inspected, here comes the report back telling me about an illegal bathroom on the lower level that had a door to the garage. Being the asshole I am I grabbed the original blueprints to the house and arranged a meeting with the city official. OK, so tell me what I have to do. "you need to get a demolition permit, a plumbing permit and an electrical permit"...but why, I asked "That is an illegally built bathroom and needs to be demolished and closed off"...well I threw the blueprints on his desk and asked "Even if it's in the original plans?...son of a bitch looked at it, looked at me and said, OK, no need to remove it then. Who the hell determined it was illegal, I asked, he just sent me to another office to record the blueprint...again.

It's bad down here, ever since Hurricane Andrew back in '92 the county and city building officials are a pain in the ass.

[44044]

I hate Building Inspectors…I have had to many

come on jobs that didn’t know how to read a

blueprint, nor know Standard Building Principles…

[Johnny]

I've read your responses so far, and I have to agree. I was the chairman of the township planning commission. I understood the ordinances and the rules. The rules were way too restrictive. I tried to change them but failed. What stopped me? Two things: apathy and inertia. Even people on the freaking planning commission were hesitant to agree to any change. They all felt "change must be bad". It was a truly awful experience and that's why I left.

Fast forward a couple years later. I still maintain friendly ties with almost everyone there. It seems that all the rules I tried to get changed are actually being changed "under the table" so to speak. They're simply not enforcing the stupid stuff I was trying to change! Maybe I didn't fail after all.

In my county, you can pile a bunch of junk in your front yard, throw a 12 x 24 blue, plastic tarp over the top and you're perfectly legal. However; if the same person builds a small shed on the property, you are subject to all sorts of scrutiny, permits and fees. If that shed exceeds 120 square feet, you have some explaining to do. If you exceed 200, you should expect a SWAT team at 3:00 AM.

Fortunately, the right people were elected in November and they're turning a blind eye to what once was seen as criminal activity.

[aviator]

I hate Building Inspectors…I have had to many

come on jobs that didn’t know how to read a

blueprint, nor know Standard Building Principles…

I'm sure you have seen your share of them.

[Johnny]

I hate Building Inspectors…I have had to many

come on jobs that didn’t know how to read a

blueprint, nor know Standard Building Principles…

I don't HATE building inspectors. I FEAR them.

Our main county building inspector is actually a nice, reasonable and knowledgeable guy. When building my barn, the ladies in the office almost always gave me the most difficult and expensive solution to every problem. When I spoke with "Dave", he'd give me the intelligent answer. I never argued or disagreed with the guy and just complied with all the stupid fees and requirements. The last thing you want to do is come up on the radar with these guys as they can bring a lot of heat into your world.

That's the main reason I'm avoiding county zoning and sticking with township. Even though I get along great with Dave, I purposefully made sure my building footprint is just under what the county considers important. I do not want to get county involved at all. As soon as you do, you open yourself up to all sorts of scrutiny and fees. No thanks.

When I built my small pole barn a few years ago, they were supposed to inspect the post holes. I was outside all day and the inspector never even set foot on the property. He just drove to the front gate, signed the permit and was on his way.

[44044]

I'm sure you have seen your share of them.

Mostly the new ones gave me the most problems…

[aviator]

Mostly the new ones gave me the most problems…

Yeah, they want to shine. When my son was building an addition to the house he took from me (basically) he had an older inspector there and the guy was really nice, even told him what he needed to correct and approved the job based on my son's word. My son has made it big now in the construction business so he knows them all and they know , they know if Beyond is doing the job there will be no issues.

[4thIDvet]

Yeah, they want to shine. When my son was building an addition to the house he took from me (basically) he had an older inspector there and the guy was really nice, even told him what he needed to correct and approved the job based on my son's word. My son has made it big now in the construction business so he knows them all and they know , they know if Beyond is doing the job there will be no issues.

Fred damn that is a nice add they have on their web site. Some of those bathrooms they displayed are so nice I would be worried about peeing in them. 😁

[aviator]

Fred damn that is a nice add they have on their web site. Some of those bathrooms they displayed are so nice I would be worried about peeing in them. 😁

They don't really do residential anymore, they are into big projects, son says if it's less than a couple of millions he won't even bid. They've done projects from Ft Myers to the Keys and Bahamas. I've seen his trucks all over the place. He will be 43 this year and wants to retire by 50.

[44044]

That’s great