As most of the regulars in here know I have been having a bit of a problem with the village I live in. (To find out the entire story do a search for "Ordinance" on this forum.)Well, there was a board meeting last night to address the question. It was determined by the Village lawyer that a "strict" reading of the ordinance would IMPLY that only self propelled farm machinery, such as tractors, could be kept within the village limits so this left me out in the cold with my horse drawn "toys". To make matters worse it wasn't on the agenda to address my concerns. Before the meeting I cornered one of the board members and showed him pictures of some of my toys and asked him if he thought they were "junk" as the Police Chief called them. I thought by doing this I might have a chance of addressing the board. Well, IT WORKED!!!! I was at least able to pass the pictures around to the board members and let them know my feelings up to this point. At first they began to talk about only allowing items that were worth XXX amount within the village but this was quickly shot down. The board member I showed the pictures to asked me what I thought would be a good number to allow in a residential zoned area as "decorative art". I told him what would look good on my place with a lot size of 120 feet by 120 feet would look like a cluttered mess on a lot of 60 feet by 80 feet. The next idea was to limit the total amount by how big the items were in relation to how much open space the lot had. This one got the most support. It was determened that the issue be passed onto the planning committee and they would set a limit of size of the farm equipment to how much open space the lot had and they would bring their findings back to the full board. So as of right now I at least have a chance to bring some of my toys back into town. Now to convince them of a number that's in my favor. I also won on another zoning question. The village president (mayor) told me over a year ago that I wasn't able to have more than one accessory building on my place and that a garage wasn't an accessory building. Well, the village lawyer said that a garage can be considered as an accessory building and it clearly stated in the ordinance that accessory buildings were listed in the plural form. If I ever get wind that they are going to change this ordinance I'm going to get myself 4 building permits before they change it. This way I'll be grandfathered in under the old ordinance. I'll just keep renewing them until I'm ready to build. Call me a smart a** but this is getting fun. :-) Old Iron
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