I know you don't see where our property was devalued Rex, that viewpoint is at the core of much of our discussion. Or at least the crux of my argument. And you're not alone here, in thinking that way. No offense intended, it's just a difference in our ways of looking at the same issue. Unfortunately, the bank and the real estate office did not share your viewpoint....and theirs was the opinion that mattered.
Fortunately, I was familiar with nuisance laws and prevailed. Even on what was then, an unzoned parcel of land.
Curiously, I now find myself on the flip side of the same coin. I'm the one doing business (zoned to do so), in what is otherwise a residential neighborhood. And given my stance here, it should come as no surprise that I take great pains to avoid troubling my neighbors, recognizing that I am most likely to offend them with my activities, rather than the other way around. I maintain regular business hours, stopping work (noise) at 5 pm. I don't work on Sundays at all, and have limited my Sat hours to just noon. I keep my yard mowed, and my shop maintained. I landscape and plant. I don't allow customers to roar up my driveway and stir dust.
I don't have to do any of these things, legally. I choose to do so, out of courtesy and respect for others. I do my best to practice everything I have preached here in this thread.
How many here would do the same?
Oops...almost forgot. Rex, I'm not worried about the EPA. I've said that all along. In my opinion, nothing will come of this that affects my ponds in any way, shape nor form.
I'm far more concerned about the tendency of my fellow citizens to put themselves first, than I am about the EPA. Not directed at you, just a general observation.
My contention is that you simply don't have a right to expect your neighbors to maintain your property value. You want the use of your land for what you want, what about your neighbors business and their rights? Aren't we forgetting somebody?
As somebody else said, you purchased in an unzoned community, you were not offended or impacted in any unexpected way. The only person you have to blame is the man in the mirror. I live in a zoned community and have found that there is a far greater loss of freedom because people who just love to infringe, like the well kept organization of such places and move here. Our community ended up becoming something that we never used to be, a socialist crap hole.
We are turning the tide. We've found that unzoned communities are also unorganized, random, freedom is everywhere. Infringers don't like this so they and their infringing don't move there. They stay out and there stupid laws never show up. The city loving people who moved to our Township came here to get away from the ruckus of the city, to smell the country air, to see the quaint countryside, and the first thing they try to do is turn us into the city!
Back on topic. Back in college a very smart man, my political philosophy prof who sat ion the board of the mackinaw center, always taught us that good law should always be sought and to do so you should ask;
Who will the law make more free? Who will the law make less free?
You are no less free listening to loud music and you are making somebody less free by outlawing it, bad law. Only way to get bad law passed is in zoned communities. I'd consider a move to one if I were you.
I just got a new pond, I made it twice because I aint so bright.
