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Update Dec 2, 2003

Mr. Avery received this letter Dec 1, 2003

Mr. Avery tried to put the building up on pilings last year. They gave him 90 days and he needed to get permits for a Soil Report, and Environmental Impact statement and a number of other county permits that would have taken 6 months and thousands of dollars. From what I gather, they refused to let him apply for the permits. I am vague on this.

Below are the faxes that Mr. Avery just sent me. It appears that the reason the structure is going to be Abates is that it is a mobile home and is not screened from view. I hope the county doesn't look at my house and decide that it is a nuisance.

The building inspector can stand in the street and determine that a house is occupied as a residence...

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

Thanks for the update. From what I read here their main problem is that it's "not screened from view".

Can he put up something -- like a tall fence-like "structure" or even a painted plastic screen, or something which would "screen it from view"?

Or move it back so it's not visible from the road?

Then their case would be shot.

As for the human occupation, that is hard to prove, unless they stay there 24/7 and take pictures of people actually living there.

I think he also needs to have a talk with his attorney or get a new one? An attorney could take this building inspector apart regarding the statement of occupation.

As for this land use permit -- the mobile home is a temporary structure, especially since it's not on cement blocks, etc., I bet those rules apply to permanent structures, not temporary ones.

I am not an attorney, so this is definitely not legal advice, but I think his attorney may have been focusing only on part of the problem, the flood issue, and missing these other possibilities for defense and resolution.

What I would suggest is for your friend to go to the Bldg. Insp. Dept, and ask them, if they would consider it acceptable, if he moved the trailer, or, as I said, put up something in front of it, to screen it from view, and also bring up the issue that if it's screened and not occupied, that should be OK, isn't it? And the thing about a temporary structure. Supposed he parked a car on his property, would that be a problem?

I really think this can be resolved.

Good luck and keep my posted.

PS to my previous post.

I think that if your friend shows some cooperative spirit to some extent, such as I suggested, making some small concessions, while trying to address the other issues, and explain to them about the occupancy issue, also trying the "temporary structure" defense (obviously someone needs to read up on all that), the Bldg Inspection Dept. may not really proceed with their stupid idea.

I just get the feeling, that they are trying to save face, so a direct confrontation and defiance would do more harm than good, but a pretense and some effort of working with them, may just resolve the issue and they will wash their hands of it.