Posted on 06/05/2017 4:19:57 PM PDT by lightman
Barred from placing a billboard on his property, one Windsor Township property owner decided to warn others of the township's "dictatorial" ways.
A truck displaying a sign that reads "Caution Entering Dictatorial Windsor Township" first appeared Saturday parked in a lot at the corner of East Prospect and Cape Horn roads.
A dictatorship is a form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a single person, known as a dictator.
The truck is owned by J&K Salvage, which offers customers the ability to rent out its trucks as a form of mobile advertising.
This particular truck was rented by Sam Seitz, who lives in western Pennsylvania but owns a handful of properties in York County, including the lot where the truck was parked.
Pictures of the truck were widely shared across Facebook over the weekend as residents guessed what prompted the message and some posted comments defending the township.
Township manager Jennifer Gunnet said she's received several calls from residents about the sign, but she didn't know what prompted it.
Seitz said Monday that the sign stems from his request for a permit to place a billboard on that same property where the truck is parked. The township's zoning hearing board denied his request last fall.
"I think they overstepped their boundaries in denying me a permit to do work on my property, which has been in my family's name since 1945," he said. "I'm 75, and I'll do whatever the hell I want with my property."
Seitz used to live in the township and said "it's always been backwards."
The property used to include a building that Seitz rented out, but the building was torn down when the state remodeled that intersection.
The state paid him for his troubles, but the property is too small to include another building, Seitz said, and adding a billboard is his only chance to produce income from the lot.
Gunnet, upon learning that Seitz was the creator of the sign, confirmed that he was denied a permit to build a billboard on the property, but she did not immediately know what the zoning hearing board's reasons were.
The five-person board is an appointed, quasi-judicial entity that would have approved Seitz's request if it had legal merit, Gunnet said.
Zoning hearing board members could not immediately be reached for comment.
Seitz, who was going to allow Lamar Advertising to manage the billboard, said the board cited another billboard being within 1,000 feet of his property as a reason for the denial.
The Windsor Township ordinance does state that no billboard shall be located within 1,000 feet of another billboard, but Seitz said the other billboard is in a different township and shouldn't apply.
Seitz said he's considering legal action while also planning to post additional signs opposing incumbent officials during election season.
Gunnet said the township can't and won't take any action to remove the sign because it's freedom of speech.
FINALLY!
A local government official who understands the First Amendment and that political speech is the most protected of all!
By way of background, Pennsylvania has an excess of local government. York County has 73 political subdivisions (Boroughs, Townships, and one City).
The intersection in question is within 1/10 mile of borders with two other Townships.
high five
[ A dictatorship is a form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a single person, known as a dictator. ]
So, Obama got a job in Windsor Township?
>FINALLY!
>A local government official who understands the First Amendment and that political speech is the most protected of all!
Or she checked, found there was nothing she could do about a truck parked on his on property, and decided to put a positive spin on it.
The state paid him for his troubles, but the property is too small to include another building, Seitz said, and adding a billboard is his only chance to produce income from the lot.
So the towship took part of his property by eminent domain. Now the remaining partial lot is too small to use for traditional structures.
So the owner wanting to make use of and profit from the property decides that selling advertising on the property is the only source of income from the property.
However the township zoning board rules that there can be no billboard on the property because there is already another nearby.
This ruling essentially makes the property worthless. Worthless or not the township will demand taxes be paid on the property.
The property being too small to develop will make it impossible to sell to anyone other than an adjacent property owner. However any adjacent property owner will know that the present owner is under pressure to unload the property and will only offer pennies on the dollar for what it would otherwise be worth.
Also an adjacent property owner would be in many ways be foolish to buy the property. The adjacent property owner knowing present owner being unable to build on the property and being an absent owner could easily make use of the property while not owning it for parking. Also property being a corner lot the new owner would subject themselves to increased taxes (property taxes are traditionally paid on road frontage. Corner lots have double the road frontage of mid-block lots and thus double the frontage taxes).
So an adjacent land owner might use the vacant lot for free and let the present owner foo the taxes.
In effect the township had taken all the owners property while only paying for a portion of the property but will still levy taxes on the property.
Delaware County, PA native bump
At least he can park a truck on his property. I hope he’ll win.
As a PA resident. I disagree. As a citizen, my local representatives are accessible. Because we can actually talk to them, ask questions, demand answers, as long as I pay attention to what's going on I can have my say on it. That's part of the design of representative government. Sadly, that part is gone from county, state, federal government. It's hard to hold people accountable when you can't get close enough to tell them what you think.
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