2nd article in local newspaper: Link to Article
Update 2/9/2011: Go to page 11 post #110 to see why.
Please excuse me while I rant but I need to say this and this is the best place for it I think.
The Back Story:
My family owns 13.60 acres of land in Upstate, NY on a peninsula into Lake Champlain known as Cumberland Head, most people in our area think of Cumberland Head as a "rich" area and for the most part that is correct. The land my mother owns though is behind a lower-middle class subdivision known as Champlain Park, which is where both myself and my mother grew up. Just this past summer we started getting some animals and putting them on this property which I have listed below. We also have chicken but they are not at the property yet.
2 Pigs - 1 grown and 1 piglet
2 Shetland Sheep
1 Hair Sheep
1 Pygmy Goat Buck
3 Alpine Goats - 2 females 1 male
While we knew (or thought we knew) that we could have animals on the property, what we latter found out was that we needed a variance UPDATE (not true now they say we don't, that we just need an aproved site plan) to build a barn because there was not already a permanent structure on the property. We only live 5 minutes away and my dad lives right next to the property, so we figured we had a good enough reason for wanting to use the property while not actually living on it.
Current:
Tonight was the variance hearing.... while I believe it would of went through had not one lady stood up and said that according to a deed from the 1950's there is a covenant on the property saying it may not be used for agricultural purposes. So the board tabled the issue until next month pending a title search or i.e. (because title searches cost so much) me going down to the county office and back tracing our deed (something I am very familiar doing because of my work in real estate).
So this sucks, but it is reasonable and it is not what has me so ticked I nearly started crying during the meeting. (I cry when I get SUPER mad, I could be grieving the lost of my favorite grandparent and not shed a tear but I get mad and trigger the water works) What ticked me off was the this old lady who lives NO WHERE near our property sent around a petition against us having the animals, which is not what this zoning appeal was for, it is for us building a structure while not already having a permanent residence already on the property. The Zoning board can't do anything about the animals we are allowed farm animals as long as we have at least 7 acres (unless this covenant on the land is true). Apparently this lady made it seem like we are starting some kind of agri-business or large scale pig farm!
Which is not correct, we want to start a small scale sustainable family farm raising pasture poultry, some pigs and a large vegetable gardens and sell what we raise and grow to the local community. We want to improve the community not destroy it!!!!
So we had a bunch of people we though that didn't care about us owning the animals at the meeting saying how we were going to ruin their quality of life and enjoyment of their property! That the smell was going to be horrible and that we were going to be contaminating the lake with run off and blah blah blah AHHHHHHHHH
I was SOOOOO mad I was shaking! for Christ sake I use to be an Ecology major I am not going to be ruining the environment I am going to be improving it by providing local food for these ignorant mentally challenged busy bodies! But I can't really blame them it is the fault of the 2 busy-body old hags that have nothing better to do then pester the neighborhood, that spread these untruths about what we planned to do. All they had to do was one day while we where out in the field feeding the animals was to stop and ASK us what our plans were instead of spreading this toxic gossip about our plans!!!!
Errr so now we have to wait ANOTHER month before we can build our barn (if we can at all) and it's getting cold out. So the hubby is building smaller shelters for them until then, even though technically we are not allowed to even have them, but they need something to protect them from the cold.
Thanks for listening to my rant - I now must type up a letter to send to all the neighbors explaining what our REAL plans are for the field.
Update 2/9/2011: Go to page 11 post #110 to see why.
Please excuse me while I rant but I need to say this and this is the best place for it I think.
The Back Story:
My family owns 13.60 acres of land in Upstate, NY on a peninsula into Lake Champlain known as Cumberland Head, most people in our area think of Cumberland Head as a "rich" area and for the most part that is correct. The land my mother owns though is behind a lower-middle class subdivision known as Champlain Park, which is where both myself and my mother grew up. Just this past summer we started getting some animals and putting them on this property which I have listed below. We also have chicken but they are not at the property yet.
2 Pigs - 1 grown and 1 piglet
2 Shetland Sheep
1 Hair Sheep
1 Pygmy Goat Buck
3 Alpine Goats - 2 females 1 male
While we knew (or thought we knew) that we could have animals on the property, what we latter found out was that we needed a variance UPDATE (not true now they say we don't, that we just need an aproved site plan) to build a barn because there was not already a permanent structure on the property. We only live 5 minutes away and my dad lives right next to the property, so we figured we had a good enough reason for wanting to use the property while not actually living on it.
Current:
Tonight was the variance hearing.... while I believe it would of went through had not one lady stood up and said that according to a deed from the 1950's there is a covenant on the property saying it may not be used for agricultural purposes. So the board tabled the issue until next month pending a title search or i.e. (because title searches cost so much) me going down to the county office and back tracing our deed (something I am very familiar doing because of my work in real estate).
So this sucks, but it is reasonable and it is not what has me so ticked I nearly started crying during the meeting. (I cry when I get SUPER mad, I could be grieving the lost of my favorite grandparent and not shed a tear but I get mad and trigger the water works) What ticked me off was the this old lady who lives NO WHERE near our property sent around a petition against us having the animals, which is not what this zoning appeal was for, it is for us building a structure while not already having a permanent residence already on the property. The Zoning board can't do anything about the animals we are allowed farm animals as long as we have at least 7 acres (unless this covenant on the land is true). Apparently this lady made it seem like we are starting some kind of agri-business or large scale pig farm!
So we had a bunch of people we though that didn't care about us owning the animals at the meeting saying how we were going to ruin their quality of life and enjoyment of their property! That the smell was going to be horrible and that we were going to be contaminating the lake with run off and blah blah blah AHHHHHHHHH
I was SOOOOO mad I was shaking! for Christ sake I use to be an Ecology major I am not going to be ruining the environment I am going to be improving it by providing local food for these ignorant mentally challenged busy bodies! But I can't really blame them it is the fault of the 2 busy-body old hags that have nothing better to do then pester the neighborhood, that spread these untruths about what we planned to do. All they had to do was one day while we where out in the field feeding the animals was to stop and ASK us what our plans were instead of spreading this toxic gossip about our plans!!!!
Errr so now we have to wait ANOTHER month before we can build our barn (if we can at all) and it's getting cold out. So the hubby is building smaller shelters for them until then, even though technically we are not allowed to even have them, but they need something to protect them from the cold.
Thanks for listening to my rant - I now must type up a letter to send to all the neighbors explaining what our REAL plans are for the field.
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