Dealing with the county...

It just keeps getting dumber and dumber with the county I have property in. I had the land rezoned specifically to operate an off road vehicle park in 2005 and have been issued a business license every year since then. The business license states I need to follow certain bylaws, rules and regulations. I inquired about a week ago what bylaws and rules I needed to follow because I was looking at putting on some events for the season. The land use clerk said she would look into it and get back to me. Next day she calls and said I never had a development permit that would list the bylaws and rules. So instead of having established rules they can now make some up? I said I did everything the county ever required me to do. I've been operating without a single complaint for 15 years. She said she'd send me the application and I wouldn't need a site plan since it was already an existing use. Oh, and I had to pay $200. I asked what happens after that. She said the permit (approved or denied) is sent to adjacent properties for review and if approved (likely)they then have the opportunity to file an appeal. WTF, I explained I had a considerable investment in developing and maintaining the property. She didn't think I'd have a problem but holy cow. I hope I don't have a problem because of this inept county. I did consult with a lawyer briefly who said if I have a problem he/they could make things difficult for the county. Some people suggested I should get the development permit grandfathered in after operating for 15 years. Makes you want to bang your head or someone else's against the wall. If I'm shut down I should find an old machine(s) with a DD 6V-53 and run it 2650 RPM all summer long. If it runs away, oh well, sh1t happens. I can find another.

We don't own our property, just stop paying taxes on it and see what happened. My brother bought property in a rural service district outside the city about 25 years ago. The property owner built a house on the river, then sold 4 lots which he had zoned as cottage property. He has to maintain the road himself, but it saved him a bundle as he would have had to build the road to government spec to sell the lots otherwise. This past summer, my brother discovered that his lawyer didn't register his paperwork for the right of way to the road. He had to pay to get the entire sub division re surveyed, about $2500, had to get each of his neighbors to submit a notarized letter giving him permission to have access to the road. One neighbor who had moved from Toronto, wanted a lawyer to advise him on it and wanted my brother to pay for that. Plus a permit for a driveway that has been there for 25 years. Option 2 build a new driveway directly to the road, about 900 feet. Permit to put 24 feet of 18 inch concrete pipe, around 350 loads of fill as the lots are quite a bit lower than the road, plus 90 ton of gravel. Oh and because the property is zoned as cottage, having direct access to the main road doubles his $2200 a year property tax

My wife worked for the building license dept of one of the largest counties in the state. The ineptness, petty BS, corruption etc is extremely high. Good luck on getting correct answers for anything

I had to supply the material to upgrade the road and was the 1st land owner in the county to have to contribute ($1500) to upgrade a public road. I asked if the property next door had to contribute or the farmer across the road as they both benefitted from the upgraded road. They said the owner of the property next door would have to contribute if they moved onto the property. Since the road is already completed what incentive do they have? What happens if they don't contribute, the road is taken out? They didn't like it when I suggested I put up a toll booth for anyone who wants to drive to the end of the road. They said you can't do that, "it's a public road". Exactly! Also had to put the approach in that should have been done by the seller of the property a year before I purchased the property. Says so in plain English in the subdivision rules. Seller got his $1000 deposit back for the approach I built. I will say the manager of public works agreed with me on both counts but it wasn't up to him. He did authorize some extra work for me and didn't charge for it. Typically the county can be hired for up to 2 hours when they are working in the area. I got about 5 hours with a D6N and D8H with a pull scraper hauled clay for the approach. I was only billed $200 which was a good deal.

with the provincial government cuts here its only going to get worse as the counties are losing more provincial funding

That is interesting that you can hire the county’s employees and equipment. The price does not sound too bad either! I have never heard of that down here.

I hired them with the grader a couple years to work on the flat track. Said it was probably the most interesting custom job they've done. $100/hr. but never charged for the full amount of time and no travelling charge either!

You cannot beat that! They frown on that down here. I remember being around 10 and Grandaddy getting the D6B stuck. He had to pull favors to get the county grader to come in and pull him out.

Well after having to sign a forum allowing the county more time to decide, because it was going to be more than the mandated 40 days after the application, I finally had my development permit approved. YEAH! Even better is that because I had the land rezoned for direct control there is no option for the neighbors to appeal the decision. They will get notice of the approval but it will state it cannot be appealed. Still lots of snow so hopefully in a month or so some of the social distancing guidelines will be relaxed.