Check it out! After weeks and weeks and weeks and months and months and months of sisyphean effort, on Friday we got our foundation permit. We can move dirt, put in conduit and plumbing, and pour a pad. Next week (sometime) we should be fully permitted for the structure. I can hardly let myself believe it!
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SQUEAL!
Yeehaw! Congrats!
What a world we live in that you need to beg the government for permission to build a structure on your own property, especially a rural one.
Well, Nate, yes and no. In spite of what we’ve just gone through (which was fairly tame, all things considered) I’m gonna come out in favor of zoning and permitting. I don’t think property ownership is a carte blanche to build whatever a person wants wherever she or he wants it. One only has that right within the confines of local zoning, which forces land owners to consider the impact of the building on the community as a whole. Why am I in favor of this, you ask? Without zoning and the permitting process that enforces it, you get Wal-Marts in historic neighborhoods; you get playgrounds next to adult movie stores; you get McMansions next to farmhouses; you get factories next to swimming pools. Is zoning abused? Yes. Is the process absurd much of the time? Yes. Does it conflict with a person’s right to property? I don’t think so. You know that thing you learn in 7th grade civics about how my right to swing my fist ends when it reaches another person’s face? That’s kind of how I see zoning: people have to look at and live with a building and its attendant uses, and that fact has to be considered when you exercise your right to build on your own land.