Posted on 07/30/2005 2:17:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Things got ugly after Daryl R. Cook's neighbors turned against him. Really ugly.
Cook spray-painted his Dunwoody ranch house bright orange and blue. After all, he's a University of Florida graduate. But he wasn't done.
Next came the farm animals, some named after famous UF athletes and coaches. Three pigs — Spottie, Dottie and Sausage Patty — root through the dirt in the shade of the house. A trio of goats, known as Donovan and the Gatorettes, keep them company. Spurrier the rooster struts around crowing at all hours.
Blue-and-orange concrete alligators, Cook's version of lawn ornaments, dot the landscape. And finally, he put up a large "For Sale" sign right out front that proclaimed his property "the Swamp of Dunwoody."
All this nastiness stems from a rezoning case Cook lost in February. He wanted to tear down his house and build two large new ones on his Dunwoody Club Drive property. The road runs along the border between Fulton and DeKalb counties. His neighbors and another builder opposed him and won, leaving Cook stuck with land zoned for agricultural uses.
So Cook decided that if his neighbors wanted agriculture, he would give it to them. All the way.
"A lot of folks call it sour grapes, and maybe it is, but it is my property," said Cook, 45, the head of an Atlanta-based civil engineering firm and a member of Fulton County's Development Advisory Committee. "I see it as a bit of a civil protest at this point. I feel like I was wronged. I am stating my protest in a legal and civil way. But at 45, it could be a midlife crisis. Who knows?"
People just don't do things like this in Cook's affluent neighborhood. All around him, doctors and business executives live in mansions surrounded by expertly landscaped grounds. Bill Grant, a fellow builder, has cleared land next to Cook's property for houses that will start at $1.3 million.
'A little overpowering'
Meanwhile, neighbors have complained to the county about Cook cutting down his trees, leaving the logs in his yard, and erecting illegal "Keep Out" and "Free Firewood" signs. They say his house is unsightly. They worry that it will drag down their property values. And they say Spurrier the rooster's racket wakes them up too early.
"Usually on Saturday mornings I put a pillow over my head," said Dara Nicholson, a real estate executive whose pool patio looks out onto the orange-and-blue house and the tangled mass of cut tree limbs in Cook's back yard.
"I'm a big supporter of my school," added Nicholson, a University of Florida alumna. "I just think it's a little overpowering for my neighborhood. I've lived in the area for about 23 years now, and that takes the cake."
Fulton County has written up Cook at least twice for code violations. One was for illegal signs, which he took down. The other was for an accumulation of tree debris, which a neighbor says is causing drainage problems in her back yard. That violation notice landed in Cook's orange mailbox last week. Cook said he planned to clean up the debris.
Polka dot protest
His house is not part of a subdivision with neighborhood rules for house colors. And county officials say they are powerless to do anything about the animals, since the land is still zoned for agriculture.
Homeowners like Cook have been retaliating against staider neighbors and government for ages. Some build tall barriers around their homes, nicknamed "spite fences." Others blare loud music. Still others get a little more creative. About two years ago, an Avondale Estates man had his house painted lime green with purple polka dots. He was protesting a city historic preservation panel's rejection of his plan to add a rounded stoop to his house. Eventually the small city in central DeKalb County reversed course and approved his plan, ending the standoff. Cook's case is the most extreme Fulton officials have seen.
His troubles started after he bought his 1.1-acre lot in September for $292,500. He hired an attorney and applied to the county that same month to rezone the land from agricultural to residential. He wanted to build two homes with a shared driveway and sell them for over $800,000 apiece. He said he spent about $10,000 in legal fees and other expenses.
'Just a mad developer'
The county's development staff recommended in favor of his rezoning. But Grant and surrounding neighbors — backed by the Dunwoody Homeowners Association — turned out against him. They pointed out that the county's land use plan calls for no more than one house per acre in that area. They didn't want the county to open the door to denser development.
"He is just a mad developer who didn't get his way," said Ken Wright, president of the homeowners association. "He hired a high-priced attorney. And we are just lowly volunteers on a homeowners group. And Fulton County agreed with us and denied him the zoning. ? One for the small guy. I love it. I wish it happened more."
At the rezoning hearings, Cook's lawyer pointed out that Fulton had approved plans for slightly more houses per acre in nearby areas, including Grant's property. But the county shot Cook down anyway, leaving his land zoned agricultural and sandwiched between one neighborhood and a developing one.
Maybe a peacock next?
During a recent tour of his property with a visitor, Cook discovered one of the pigs had escaped her pen while he was at work. She had wandered into the garage and knocked over a metal garbage can full of pig feed.
"It's OK. Come on. You have to get back into your pen, honey," he told her sweetly. Then he pounced on her, grabbing her round the middle. But she wiggled away with an insistent snort. Watching from the other side of the fence, the other two pigs squealed with excitement. Finally, Cook caught the runaway, heaved her up, and gently placed her in her pen.
The Jacksonville native dreams of retiring one day and moving to the Georgia or North Carolina mountains. But for the foreseeable future, he says, he plans to stay at Dunwoody Swamp. He says it will remain the way it is until Grant and his neighbors reverse themselves and endorse his rezoning plans.
In the meantime, he has other ideas for the property. He wants to plant wax beans, beets, corn and squash. And maybe he will bring in some more animals. Perhaps a peacock. Something colorful. Something showy.
LMAO!!!! Good for Mr. Cook!!!
It's about time some of those zoning Nazis took it straight up the kazoo, and those high-falutin' residents of that neighborhood too!
Never, NEVER mess with a UF Gator! :)
And I speak that as a long time Seminole fan! ;)
He seems to have dug in.
You'd think this could have been resolved differently, especially since Grant's development next to him, will have homes on lots smaller than an acre.
It is zoned agricultural.
JOEY IVANSCO/AJC
This guy is less than two miles from where I'm sitting.
Because the lot is elevated with respect to the road, you really don't see the place as that picture portrays. The only folks who see that, will be the new neighbors in the small high-dollar infill development next door.
If this guy had any sense, he would have sold to that developer when he had the chance.
In my experience, zoning boards more often than not will arbitrarily enforce, not enforce, change, eliminate, or otherwise screw with the zoning rules so as to benefit the people they like and hinder the people they don't like.
It's where the ugliness of local politics shows at its ugliest.
It's more personal at that level but I've seen small town governments and planning and zoning boards that could turn your hair white. As you move up the food chain, it's just as bad, only it affects more and more people.
You have power, politics, profit and personal agendas.
In fact, every 4th of July we should freep all zoning boards and give their neighbors roosters.
Yeah, you see that, but you're not looking down on it like that. See how that car in the pic, is lower than the gator? You're really looking up at it all, and all his stuff doesn't jump out at you, as he'd like.
If it were light out, I'd go down and take a pic from the street.
This is no different then fights going on throughout the country where folks own property and idiots with a little power stop owners from using their property.
If this guy were really smart he'd start a serious chicken farm. The stench from one of those would turn anyones mind.
Gainesville, GA used to be the poultry capital of the world.
I guess it isn't anymore but I'm sure there still is serious chicken production going on.
Then there always are those pigs.
A thread yesterday on FR Woman Fined for Stinky Pigs***....The two pigs, according to evidence submitted during the trial, could generate as much as 35 pounds of solid waste and several gallons of liquid waste every day. Fields testified there is no odor because she did not smell it, and that the odor detected by a Hobart code enforcement officer was attributable to swine flatulence. ...***
Exactly correct.
And while it's a busy street, it's hardly a main thoroughfare, at least by Atlanta standards.
A well stated truism.
Better yet, a pig farm.
There is still plenty of chicken production around Gainesville.
I did some consulting for ConAgra Foods' poultry division, before it was sold off to Pilgrim's Pride. Conagra has a large processing plant there, and I think 2-3 competitors do as well. And there are chicken houses scattered all across the countryside.
As I read it he's throwing a snit because he wasn't allowed to change the zoning. If he didn't like the existing zoning why did he buy it in the first place? There's no guarantee you can change it once you've purchased it, so it's buyer beware BEFORE you lay the money down.
Sounds like he's as bad as his nitpicking neighbors.
LQ
Yes. I don't see any sympathetic characters, except his neighbors, who are caught in the middle.
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