govt. inconsistency

[colonelbuckrobely]

It never ceases to amaze me how local govts. are so inconsistent in their rules and regulations for development. I am dealing with the City of Crosslake at the moment on a landscape design I did for a new home. I designed in 5' high retaining walls. They don't allow them so we will now have to design in terraced walls to get around this at greater cost to the owner. If I had been in Cass County this wouldn't have been an issue. I go through this constantly. Rules in Fifty Lakes are different from those in Crosslake or Pequot Lakes and so forth. In this case I am just amazed. They would rather have two 30" walls taking up more space and requiring greater cost than one well designed wall. I suppose they are worried that a do-it-yourselfer might get into trouble on something like this. In my opinion that is the responsibility of the homeowner to figure this out. Personal responsibility is something govt. doesn't seem to get.

To sum this up, I am sick and tired of obstructionist local government. I want to hear your local govt. stories.

[hasset]

I agree with you 100%. Part of why I am having a bad real estate problem is because of county rules. Now, as of July 1, I can say it is also because of new state rules. I won't go into it as it is too complicated but I will say that I lived on that mini-farm for 31 yrs. without a problem so why the new rules that don't make sense?

On another subject, I long for the days when town people could have a milk cow and some chickens in the backyard. It is getting to the point where you can't even have hogs on your big farm. I think I need to get one of those wonderful new green jobs that B.O. is creating. I saw one for studying hog smells and I am qualified for that since I lived across the road from a giant hog operation for 30 yrs. The smells were under control and I never noticed a thing. The hog farmer now only grows corn since corn prices went up and I never see hogs anymore. I wonder if anyone will be raising them. I don't see much soy beans either. It used to be that farmers rotated between corn and beans but now they seem to be growing corn every year.

[mndapa1]

Oh where do you want me to start?

It is just local govt., but county, state...who else?

Whoever came up with anything other than a uniform building code was an idiot.

I have had it out with cities, townships, and the county over vague language in codes that they interpret as they will and not what it actually says.

I built a privacy fence in Pine River, and with permission of neighbors, made it a block long. Had to jump through hoops, as the previous council before I was elected mayor, and the former mayor had no idea on what I needed. I put it right down the middle of an alley and over six feet tall. Council and the mayor said I didnt need a permit. The adjacent property owners didnt want to get involved, although they were ordered to pay for it, since it was in a contract for a variance they had with the city.

My wife an I put the fence up over a weekend...and what did we get for it...more red tape and ordinance violations, after we had already asked the city what was required. So needless to say, my wife and I signed the fence over to the city, and told them it was out of our hands because we were tired of dealing with them.

[hasset]

When you said "property owners didnt want to get involved", you were probably saying they were AFRAID to get involved. You can't trust governement as they want to put fines and taxes on anything they can find. I am at the point where I am getting paranoid about what my husband and I are saying at home. I feel like big brother may be listening in.

[colonelbuckrobely]

Here is another example of how local government raises its money to supplement its budget. It started in most cases at least 20 years ago. These fund raising methods are called "user fees".
When I was the park superintendent for the City of Des Moines in the late 80's we had a new director bent on supplementing our budget. Voila, user fees were begun. To rent a picnic shelter in one of our parks you had to pay a fee and the same applied to many other park services that people used. The fact of the matter is that residents had already paid for the operation of the parks and recreation areas through their property taxes. I always argued against this and felt that it was nothing more than a smoke screen to hide a new form of taxation. Of course I lost the argument. Every year at budget time the staff tried to figure how to increase or raise new "user fees".

[dapa2]

While I beleive some things should and can be funded by user fees, the term is severly overstated and is a way locals raise revenues by calling it by another name. Ever wonder why you now have locals charging street light fees, charge a franchise fee to utilities like cable which is an indirect tax passed on to consumers. Taxpayers are being duped and it is up to us to educate them on these issues.

[hasset]

I feel so frustrated. Last summer I lost a very good offer on my acreage because of Freddie/Fannie and the interest rates dropping so often. This summer I found another buyer but at a MUCH lower price and I am about to be screwed again. The governor slapped more rules on houses with septic systems because of all the problems last summer with too much rain. We paid to have a septic company come to do the evaluation and they were supposed to have the report given to the Health dept. by tomorrow. Now they tell us (after having come to the house and done a bunch of digging and checking for $250) that they can't send the report because no one was living in the house and they needed someone to wash a bunch of clothes, take showers, etc. They had previously told us they could run a hose into the septic tank and measure how much water went in and how well the fields drained. Deadline is missed and there is no report to give the potential buyer. I am so sick of government and busiwork and rules. I do not know how they thought I could have lived in that wonderful place for the past 31 yrs. with the same septic system that never caused a problem. The red tape of all of this is just unreal. I think if I were to do things over again, I would go to another state. I heard that Idaho was a common sense state but I suppose they changed too.

[colonelbuckrobely]

Hang in there hasset. We have the same situation here now. A home can't be sold without an inspection and approval of the septic system. For that matter an addition or major renovation of a property or home here triggers the same requirement. If they are not up to snuff a new one is required to be installed.

[hasset]

I understand the inspection but when that company said they would run water through the system and then they didn't it made it so I never got a report to give to the Health dept. My system passed inspection the first time and then more rules were added and I think we had the wrong company come to check it over again.
All they had to do was to measure how much water they were putting in the tank and then time it to see how fast it went through the lines. We have an above ground distribution box so I could have done the test. I have gotten so I am so tired of people who say they will do one thing and then they don't.

[dtothelux]

Hasset, $250 is way out of line for someone to show up and do nothing. I recently had some issues and had a company come in. They checked everything out including the pumps and also pumped our tank. The total bill was $178. I would give them what for in no uncertain terms. You have been scammed.

[hasset]

Around here it is $350 to pump the tank. No one has lived in my house since the last pumping but by law, we will have to get it pumped if I don't get the place sold within a year (which will be on Aug. 8). Our septic system is a gravity one (no pumps) where everything goes down hill and then soaks in to the leach fields. We haven't paid a thing yet but I am pretty tired of my husband always having to go into battle mode everytime we hire anyone to do anything. All the person was suppose to do was to check how fast the water moved into the ground and to check the condition of the tank, distribution box, baffles, etc. How many times does this have to be done, especially when no one has been living there? I think this, plus the way the country is going is getting to us. Things could be worse for us. I met someone last week who got laid off of his job in Arizona and he sold his house and moved out only to have the buyer back out at the last minute. Meanwhile, he had sent his wife and three small children to his parents house in my town in Iowa because he couldn't find another job. There was no way he could keep paying the mortgage so he had to give the house to the bank.
All this misery does not have to happen to people but this is what happens when you have socialists and people with no character in business.

[hasset]

I forgot to add that we had a house inspector last July and the house passed with flying colors. That inspection can not be passed on to another buyer. Inspections have to be done all over again even if it is done the next day. Each buyer has to have his own inspection report. Inspections take about 4 hours. This should have some common sense added somewhere as it is just a big waste of time and money.

[hasset]

I am not paying the bill for the septic system to be checked over/ per new July 1, 2009 rules because it was not done and I am in the same condition I was before I called the guy to come. Has anyone ever had something like this that they fought and won?