Marti contact your County Clerk or better yet and more direct call County Planning and zoning. LOL I have our P and Z on speed dial.They help me all the time as the city clerk.

The county will have the plans the developer submitted. Also the county is responsible to stop the problem. Some times they are not aware there is a problem unless it is reported to them. It is not an easy process but hang in there.You might need to get other neighbors involved.

There were people in our county trying to start a car junk yard and the county stepped in and stopped it.Course to the people these was not junk cars. It got pretty nasty for the people. I felt sorry for them. Still law is law.

You can also look up state Statutes for your state for some more information. I do not know what code numbers your statutes would be. Start with state statutes then planning and zoning. Then go to State Government State Affairs. Then Local Land Use Planning. Then for Idaho it would be.

67-6514 EXISTING ZONING OR SUBDIVISION ORDINANCES.
67-6515 PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENTS.

Warning. State statutes are addicting to read. Or maybe I am just nuts. Hehehehehe

OH Yah sorry you got reamed. Some people do not understand some of the laws are to protect them. Not always to cause them troubles. AND for some these laws have SAVED the value of their property. Like here. . Who wants to buy their dream property on 3 - 5 acres build a house on it and then have a subdivision plunked down right next to them with 30 houses devil may care how it is done?? This is how laws ca protect the people.

Chris

Thanks Chris, I was hoping you would be on to answer. I have already talked to one neighbor and as soon as the other neighbors carry out their plan we will both call. Right now, the neighbors have just built a shed (and probably without a building permit) but they have said they are about to do more.

Well let the county know as they should be the ones to issue the building permits. THEN they will be the bad guys. We keep our county informed on what is happening around here. Usually they know already.

Chris

I will. I don't talk to these neighbors so for all I know they did get a permit, though the "shed" seems awfully close to the property line, about 3-5 feet it looks like. It also looks like they are trying to hide it behind my bushes (but on their side of the fence. And they may be all talk about their intended use of the shed, but time will tell I guess. The bad thing is that it's about 30' from my bedr**m window.

Marti, I was chatting in Home Depot with the paint clerk a week ago. The subject turned to sheds and building permits, and how they were restricted since the adoption of a new building code since all the hurricanes of recent years. If you are in any area where there is ANY sort of potential flood, storm, tornado, hurricane, glass breakage, whatever, you might also just ask your home owners insurance agent for some guidance. I bet they know if such structures are considered a hazard to neighbors. Who knows, these folks might have insurance with the same agent you use!

But codes are changing in many locations. Shades knows the ins and outs of government organization better than I, but I have some difficult neighbors living next door. It can be very touchy.

And there you are trying to decide whether to stay and remodel, or MOVE!!! Nothing is as simple as it might seem.

Marti, do you have a HOA? My nephew lives in a subdivision which has a very active HOA, and they have even made people remove fences that were against the covenant! I don't know how it works, but apparently they can be useful if you have one.

One of the things which changed the year AFTER we moved our 12x16 wooden shed from the riverfront to here was, apparently, the change in need for a building permit for small sheds. When we put ours in, it was on skids and did NOT need a building permit, nor did it need to comply with setback restrictions.

At the time, PERMANENT structures (not those on SKIDS) had to be 8 feet or more from the side property lines, 25' from the street property line...not 25' from the center of right-of-way. Sometimes reading the restrictions can be challenging!

Well, now the side yard setback is 15' and the sheds in the COUNTY (not the city) must be wooden, must have tiedowns anchoring it, must be able to withstand 130 mph winds or something like that. I think an awful lot of lightweight metal sheds flew through the air to damage insured houses during Hurricane Katrina! We were in the Katrina disaster zone; now the new zoning rules apply to type of windows in our houses if replaced and our roofs, etc etc etc.

Marti, if you are in any kind of zone where safety from catastrophic events has been an issue in last couple of years, check for any new building codes. Of course the codes are there to protect us all, even the rascals next door to many of us.

Hi marti, I dont have any advice to offer but just wanted to say good luck with the neighbours. There is a house a few streets away where the front yard is full of car bodies and parts. they must buy old cars and fix them up or something but it does look like a junkyard. every now and then someone must complain because all of a sudden the junk gets cleaned up and is gone but soon after starts building up again. Im glad I dont live next door to them or it would drive me nuts with the mess :0

Where my mom lives, the rule is that any shed bigger than 10' x 12' has to have a permit. Smaller sheds (usually the plastic or aluminum ones you assemble yourself) are okay and can be set almost on top of the property line.

Excellent advice from Chris to call your county P & Z. I'm sure they will check on it, because the county is the one who gets the money in exchange for the permit :)

Why would B/S (LOL) be upset that you have concerns about your neighbor? You would think they'd be all about the property values. If the neighbor is wrong, it's better to fix it now, then after they install more things that may have to be taken down.

"Nothing is as simple as it might seem."

You ain't just a woofin. (local old timers saying) lol Those neighbors are one of the main reasons we would move if we do.

I know we have to have a permit for any kind of shed, but I need to check the setback limit. It just really galls me when I try to keep my house up and play by the rules and these people come along and think they can do anything they please, and they were given a copy of the subdivision restrictions when they brought in a bunch of roosters one time.

No, we're not in an HOA. This type of thing is the only reason I would ever think an HOA is a good thing.

I don't think there is any danger of the shed causing us water problems, but it might cause them problems because we are higher than they are and the area where they are building the shed is a wet area when it rains.

LavenderLass, I asked on the B&S how long it takes for a bank to foreclose on a house (because these neighbors are said to be several months behind on mortgage), and someone made a jab at me.

Ouch! That's harsh. Asking about foreclosure sounds like a fair question to me.

Maybe they will get foreclosed on and problem solved :)

That might solve one problem, but could start others. Whoever moves in next could be worse. I wonder if they got caught up on payments since they are building this shed. At least their car payments seem to be caught up. They're not hiding their car behind the garage anymore.

Gads Marti. Sounds like quite a side show. We used to have neighbors like this years ago. Almost got to be the question of the day. What were they going to do next??? Sometimes it was funny sometimes NOT so much. I hope it works out for you. We have good neighbors here. WE are lucky. We do have one vacant house though and it backs right up to our property line. In fact there are two empty places. Never know who will move into them. Hope some one nice.

Yes, it is a side show sometimes. I talked to another neighbor tonight and he is going to check with someone at the city to find out what we do when they cross the line. In the meantime, we just watch. Another neighbor called tonight and said there have been a couple of c*r break-ins this week. E-gads, and I thought our neighborhood was really safe because we are on a dead end and have a sheriff's officer living on the block.

People should know what the subdivision rules are before they buy, and then abide by those rules. That annoys me almost as much as the reverse; people who buy property in an un-zoned rural area, and then complain about animal noises and odors. If you don't like the living conditions (good or bad) then don't live there. Our neighborhood is pretty strict on rules, and luckily, pretty much everyone follows them. That being said, I can't wait to move out to the country so i can do what I want on my property. That's why society has different kinds of neighborhoods.

BTW- We have a policeman across the street, and two on the next block, and we get c*r break-ins all the time. Nothing serious- kids, I think.

The city here is doing a mandatory 10 review of the comprehensive plan. This is rural /city. Most of our zone is M= multiple use. The council is being very careful to keep the ag base as established so just as you say. Some one does not move right next to a farmers hay field and then complain the farmer is bailing his crop in the middle of the night. They never seem to understand there are times because of dew the hay can be bailed to keep from shattering the leaves. Do they really think that farmer wants to be up all night bailing any more then they want to listen to it?? And then put in a full day of work after he gets done bailing??

Actually I think the rhythmic Ker Thump of the bailer is soothing. Hearing it louder then softer as it moves around the field closer then further away. The neighbors herd of horses across the street the herd of cows next door on our fence line and even the other neighbors rooster that I quietly ignore and hope no one else knows the rules no roosters in town.

It can be a real tight rope to walk living in the city and all the rules. Trying to hold them down to the bare minimum but have enough to protect Marti.

Chris

Shades, I have parrots which I dearly love. Their sounds are soothing to me, just like the twittering of the wild birds. But to other folks, that is noise. And my little flock do not scream, like the big macaws and cockatoos can==they can rattle the rafters and shatter glass down the block. Still, I'd rather have the birds any day than a dog that barks all night long for no reason, or big dogs roaming the streets in packs so aggressive you cannot get out of your car if they are nearby.

There was a thread on here years ago which was in the gardening section, about the worst neighbor ever. The man writing the thread had a great sense of humor, and it became a saga of the redneck homeowner next door. It would crack you up following the storyline. Too bad your neighbor is not funny. :/

ML We do have a neighbor up on the hill with the large birds we can hear all the way down here but I do not care. I used to raise birds years ago. Chuckers bobwhites phesants and they had some weird noises. Cocatiels ,finches ,doves. I love animals and only get annoyed when some one lets their dog bark for hours on end in the middle of the night.

We are only 5 houses from the highway too so we have some highway noise. Not like a really busy highway. We rarely have to even stop to cross when we walk to get the mail.

Chris

Here is a link that might be useful: Some old bird pictures when I was young and really skinny.

Love that picture of you with the cockatiels!

Chris, you have certainly lived a full life! I feel like a stick-in-the-mud when I read of the things you have done!

In Arizona, any restrictions in the covenants have to be enforced by a civil suit against the violator.

That's because it's a private contract, not a public law.

Ahhh, Chris, how lovely. I hear the general rule is, "You never eat that which you name." So I know your bovines were as much pets as they were providers of buttah and cream.

Now, I was visiting over there on the Buy & Sell forum. They have a good thread about permits which could be interesting, since it touches on what happens in various states when work is not "permitted."

Lazygardens that is one way to do it. Not sure how that works here unless a person has something like HOA

OH we NEVER ate and cow babies and I tried to sell them off for breeding stock. Was pretty lucky that way as the mama cows were nice stock. The ranchers teased us, my husband, for not eating the off spring. I milked those cows until my hands gave out. Probably what contributed to the poor state of my hands now. Sigh.

Will see if I can find it ML. I need to get my day started now I have been lazing around all morning.

chris

Thanks ML. I've been doing a little searching online and can't find anything specific, and lots of differences, so thought I'd call P&Z Monday and see what they have to say.

They haven't built any more on the shed. The two guys building it were supposed to come out again the next day but they never came back. Dh wonders if they didn't get paid for the first day.

I got a little more info. The neighbors began building a shed and intend to get a pony. I called County Development and they said it was a civil matter, but they did get a building permit for a horse shed and also signed the part that said there were no restrictions against such.

My dh doesn't want to do anything until they actually get the pony because until then, they haven't done anything wrong. One neighbor to the south agrees and another is balistic and wants to run them out on a rail.

I know they know of the restrictions because of the rooster thing, and I would like to nip this in the bud before they get a horse, flies, and stink over there. But I'm outvoted at this point.

It's a civil matter if the builder's covenants are stricter than local ordinances. You and the neighbors will have to take them to court yourselves.

And if you do not immediately take violators to court, you establish loopholes in the covenants for the future. That ignored pony could turn into others on other properties.

I called a lawyer friend yesterday. All the neighbors are united and we are going to try to nip it in the bud.