Now, I know you don't think so, but this type of thinking is what has cost Americans much freedom. Too many people worry about what someone's property looks like. They own it they have the right to do with it as they will. Sadly, in too many cities those rights have long gone away because so many people worry about what others are doing and they worry about their "property values" and not their property rights.
Way to many so called conservatives stand by building codes and onerous laws that serve to sap us of our freedoms and serve no other purpose.
***They own it they have the right to do with it as they will.***
I had a man, wife and child, buy a lot about 75 yards from my house. He promptly pulled in an old trailer, and started collecting junk.
He had no water, no sewer or septic. His electric came from a long extension cord from another house about 50 yards in the opposite direction. He designated one room of the house for a toilet and used a lounge chair with a hole cut in the seat. The waste was poured in the local creek. The place stunk to high heaven.
After about eight years of this, the county sheriff raided the property and found the largest meth lab in the state there. The owners were arrested and are in prison, the child, then age 14, ran away and has never been seen since.
The state then began to clean up the property and had to place all the contaminated dirt around it in sealed metal containers for disposal. The trailer was dismantled piece by piece, but it was so contaminated they finally left it to “air out” for a few more years. Then the remains disappeared.
We have a pup from their dog that strayed up here. The vet said the pup had liver damage from the contaminated area, but eventually she overcame her liver problems and is a wonderful pet.
Some people are not good neighbors.
I see possibilities for compromise in both your views. If you want to live in a sty, please feel free to buy land in a remote area and have a sty. If you are going to live next door to me, kindly don’t have a sty 20 feet from my property line.
We all have choices. We can elect to live in areas that have covenants to protect our property values but will drive us mad with regulation. Or we can live in less-regulated but more risky areas where we have lower taxes and less government intrusion, but we are not protected from neighbors who burn old tires. Decide where you want to live; we can still do that, fortunately. But generally people should not come into an area where everyone is comfortably slobby and impose middle-class shelter-magazine tastes on them. Don’t come into a middle-income area and keep six dead cars on the front lawn, because that will impinge on the neighbors’ ability to sell their houses. Don’t come into a suburban townhouse community and jack deer off your deck in the evening, because that endangers local kids, especially if you’re drunk when you do it (and yes, I do know folks who do that). If you want to do those things, move someplace where your values will fit in, rather than imposing your values on others.
The problem we in the US are facing is one of expectations. People move from city apartments to townhouses in the suburbs, from townhouses to single-family houses on a quarter of an acre, from a quarter-acre to five acres, and at each step they think they are going to have more freedom and privacy than they actually have. How many friends do I have who have moved to 10 acres and then are shocked when the county shows up to tell them they have to comply with manure disposal regulations? Or that they can’t build an extra bedroom over the barn or garage because the septic system won’t take another toilet?