lowlyplanner
Cyburbian
- Messages
- 69
- Points
- 4
What do I tell this guy?
A walk-in, an older guy with his wife. He operates a junkyard, like his daddy done, in an area that used to be the middle of nowhere and is now rapidly suburbanizing - even with him there. The problem is, when we did our comp plan about 10 years, we rezoned him from "Heavy Industrial" to "Rural Residential." He claims he never got any notice from the City (which I believe - we weren't all that great about noticing back then - in the early 90s).
He wants to pass on his business to his children (who I'm sure have no interest in operating a junkyard), and being non-conforming will make that very difficult. He thinks that our junk car ordinance is "communism and hitlerism." He described threatening the code enforcement officer with a crowbar, then looking him up in the phone book and calling him at home to yell at him some more.
Right down the street are brand-new subdivisions at $200-300K.
I felt a lot of sympathy for this guy - the suburbs came out to him and he had no interest in them - but I didn't have a single helpful thing to say. I know this happens everywhere - what do you'all say to these folks?
I sent him to our deputy director, btw, who is known as an accomplished talker...
A walk-in, an older guy with his wife. He operates a junkyard, like his daddy done, in an area that used to be the middle of nowhere and is now rapidly suburbanizing - even with him there. The problem is, when we did our comp plan about 10 years, we rezoned him from "Heavy Industrial" to "Rural Residential." He claims he never got any notice from the City (which I believe - we weren't all that great about noticing back then - in the early 90s).
He wants to pass on his business to his children (who I'm sure have no interest in operating a junkyard), and being non-conforming will make that very difficult. He thinks that our junk car ordinance is "communism and hitlerism." He described threatening the code enforcement officer with a crowbar, then looking him up in the phone book and calling him at home to yell at him some more.
Right down the street are brand-new subdivisions at $200-300K.
I felt a lot of sympathy for this guy - the suburbs came out to him and he had no interest in them - but I didn't have a single helpful thing to say. I know this happens everywhere - what do you'all say to these folks?
I sent him to our deputy director, btw, who is known as an accomplished talker...