The Little-Known Second Part Of New Hampshire's"Live Free Or Die..."
It appears to be "...but NIMBY!"
Not in my (or the neighbors') backyard.
Busybody neighbors have apparently gotten right to getting that enforced in New Hampshire.
At Business Insider, Frank Olito writes that a young woman parked her tiny house on her parents' property in New Hampshire but was forced to move out after the local government said it was illegal:
After graduating from college and moving into a tiny house on her parents' property, Brianna O'Brien found a life-altering letter in the mail: an eviction notice.Six months earlier, she had decided to move back to her hometown of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, but she couldn't afford an apartment in the area.
"All the pieces aligned for me to start looking into tiny houses," she told Insider.
While perusing Facebook Marketplace in September 2018, she found the perfect tiny house made of salvaged wood for $29,000. She bought it using a low-payment loan.
At first, she said, she planned to work with the local zoning board to get the house properly zoned, but her research advised her otherwise.
"I did a lot of crowdsourcing for advice, and the majority of folks who live in tiny houses on wheels recommend keeping it as under the radar as possible because the red tape is so difficult," she said.
O'Brien decided to park it on her parents' property and didn't foresee it being a problem. "It was so hidden in the bushes," she said.
However, a neighbor spotted the house and brought it to the zoning board's attention. O'Brien received a letter saying her tiny house did not adhere to the zoning codes in Hampton Falls.
When O'Brien received the notice, she began a conversation with the local building inspector. She learned that her house broke several zoning ordinances: It had no formal plumbing, it had only one form of egress, and it was too close to the property line.
"There is no building code for tiny houses, so you have to get an occupancy permit to get it zoned," O'Brien said. "It's a cycle that feeds into itself. Without a building code, it automatically breaks any zoning ordinances."
O'Brien decided to fight for an occupancy permit and get her house properly zoned. She put together a presentation explaining how she would fix the ordinances she broke and prove that her tiny house was a viable and safe place to live full time.
No go.
In the end, O'Brien had to move out of the tiny house and left it standing empty on her parents' property. She also had to leave the hometown she fought so hard to live in....In the eyes of most local governments, tiny houses are considered recreational vehicles -- and, legally, you are not allowed to live in an RV full time. Homeowners need to work with their local governments to get the rules changed, said Dan Fitzpatrick, the president of the Tiny Home Industry Association.
If you build your own pad and you're okay living without plumbing, assuming you aren't fouling the local creek, why is it any of the government's business?
One form of egress? These are not mini-mansions. You take two big steps and you're at the door.
Too close to the property line...for whom? My neighbors keep a bunch of ugly crap behind their apartments, but I can either put up a fence that blocks it -- which Gregg did for me years ago -- or I can suck it up. I don't get to issue orders to tidy things because I don't like how it looks.
Or...am I missing something. Is there some kind of harmful set of rays that emits from a structure very close to the edge a person's land? If not, why does the government get to tell you how close you can or cannot be?
The laws may be stupid, but she knowingly broke them and decided not to get the house approved. So, no sympathy.
NicoleK at December 31, 2020 11:22 PM
And yes, there can be harm from a structure too close to your property. For example, it can cause shade in your garden, reducing your ability to grow stuff, or your ability to sunbathe, or block your view, or any number of things that lower your property value.
NicoleK at December 31, 2020 11:24 PM
Goddess:
Is there some kind of harmful set of rays that emits
- - - - - - -
Yep - the dreaded PDFF:
Poverty/Dysfunction Force Field.
Poor impusle control, amorality, and criminal behavior correlate to poverty - a point Goddess herself has made many times.
Zoning laws are the modern poll tax. It's not about the money - it's about limiting participation to people who have acquired certain intangible virtues that correlate to financial stability and social harmony.
I am being very careful NOT to use the word "class" here - a word ruined by Socialists.
Because it's not about the money.
It'a about people who've invested in a community doing their best to screen for those intangibles of good citizenship.
Ben David at January 1, 2021 4:40 AM
I’m amazed at the math impaired who would pay 30k for a shed instead of buying a used airstream with more amenities, far better resale potential, and much easier to move.
If you don’t own the land underneath your house, all you really have is an RV anyway.
Isab at January 1, 2021 6:37 AM
Yea, I get it - government overreach; However, I am not sure that is the case here.
NicoleK has already stated what I think is the important issue here - local laws intended to protect the neighbors' investment in their own property.
And, lastly, as NicoleK said, this woman decided to break the laws (because others advised her to fly under the radar? what a lame excuse for not taking responsibility!) so I have no sympathy for her either.
charles at January 1, 2021 6:53 AM
Yeah, no sympathy. She knew what she was doing.
People don’t pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes in SF1 neighborhoods and then turn a blind eye when their neighbor’s kid rolls in a shack on wheels.
Most municipalities don’t allow people to live in RVs outside of designated RV parks, just like they don’t allow trailer houses outside of certain zoned areas.
She might have been able to park it at an RV park... but I suppose she couldn’t afford or didn’t want to rent a spot.
Like Isab, I don’t understand why she didn’t just buy a used RV. They’re much easier to haul and you can find great deals on them. I know a single mom who bought an RV off a pipeline worker for $5k and rents a spot at the park in town.
Yes, towns have zoning laws, and yes, they are meant to keep the trash out.
ahw at January 1, 2021 7:43 AM
Setback requirements started as part of the fire codes. If buildings are too close to the property line on both sides, fire will jump between buildings and fire fighters can't get through. Regulators also can't allow one property owner to violate the setback when there is plenty of room on the other side of the line - this limits how much the other owner can expand.
OTOH, it gets quite arbitrary when the same regulators who require setbacks between single-family houses have no worries about fire spreading through townhouses and apartment buildings that extend across many lots as a single building. (They may zone against these for reasons of density and keeping the less wealthy out of the neighborhood, but not for fear of fire.)
markm at January 1, 2021 8:27 AM
"amorality, and criminal behavior correlate to poverty "
And yet somehow the Clintons are afloat on an ocean of cash.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 1, 2021 8:29 AM
Scratch that.
What I meant to say was 'Happy New Year!' in my most uplifting and positive online voice.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 1, 2021 8:32 AM
Zoning laws determine how streets, transit services, sewer lines, cell phone towers, utilities, and other municipal services are laid out. Higher density areas get more police and fire stations, wider streets, bigger sewer lines, etc.
When you add tiny houses to those areas, you add people not accounted for in the plan. You potentially overload the grid.
Conan the Grammarian at January 1, 2021 8:56 AM
Markm, Lest ye think an opportunity for regulation has gone unnoticed, there is a fire partition code for multifamily residential. Scroll down to critique the design.
https://www.sbcmag.info/news/2016/feb/how-design-build-firm-uses-fire-code-their-advantage
In truth, building codes help make America great. The financial and safety benefits are an almost unmatched investment. Zoning is a different animal - often political.
You know what the first thing people buy is after they get a tiny house? A storage shed.
Spiderfall at January 1, 2021 9:03 AM
O'Brien received a letter saying her tiny house did not adhere to the zoning codes in Hampton Falls.
I have 100 quatloos that say her parents voted for the people who instituted those regulations. I have another 100 that say she, herself will also be in favor of those laws when she finds them beneficial.
You want a tiny house without "Imperial entanglements"? buy 10 acres with road access out in the county, drop the tiny house in the middle, and mark your property with an adequate # of "no trespassing" signs and you'e good to go.
The only other thing I can think of is: call it she-shed and not a domicile.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 1, 2021 10:31 AM
Well, no 'formal' plumbing is on reason you don't want a 'tiny house' too near your property.
FWIW a lot of municipalities have been having problems with 'tiny houses' because many of them are poorly built and have jerry rigged 'utilities'. That's been one reason they're often not accommodated by zoning or municipal land use ordinances. And the owners have developed a reputation for being irresponsible - apparently a lot of the houses end up being abandoned.
cochi at January 1, 2021 11:10 AM
It's sad (and unusual) to see Amy's thoughts so thoroughly countermanded by her commenters, but I agree with all of you.
I know guys who've spend twenty years renting Santa Monica "mother-in-law" houses (north of Wilshire!) with no regrets. In Sioux City it would be a mortgage, but in L.A. it's rent.
But America is really, really good at building codes and zoning. Tragically imperfect, often criminally deficient, but we're still really good at looking out for the little guy.
Crid at January 1, 2021 12:14 PM
I mean…
…Done.Because reasons.
Crid at January 1, 2021 12:23 PM
> if you're okay living without
> plumbing, assuming you aren't
> fouling the local creek
In America, this mutual assumption is affirmed by laws, codes and inspections demonstrating that you are, in fact, "okay."
Crid at January 1, 2021 12:27 PM
“Like Isab, I don’t understand why she didn’t just buy a used RV. They’re much easier to haul and you can find great deals on them. I know a single mom who bought an RV off a pipeline worker for $5k and rents a spot at the park in town. “
As a long time travel trailer owner, I can tell you that even with the best shocks and struts under the thing, about every five hundred miles you go around with a screwdriver, and a tube of lock tite putting everything back together that has shaken loose due to road vibration.
The tiny houses are considerably heavier and less road worthy. Designed to be pulled very short distances, if at all.
Isab at January 1, 2021 12:44 PM
Umm...
No one from California needs to hoot at the restrictions in any other state.
Radwaste at January 1, 2021 2:37 PM
Well now, Raddy, Cali's freaking huge. There are enormous differences in how these things are handled, even between her bigger cities, and between her, um, megapoleis. (The spelling of which can now be forgotten, because once in a lifetime is plenty.)
Crid at January 1, 2021 3:59 PM
"Well now, Raddy, Cali's freaking huge."
Gotcha - but: start scrolling.
Radwaste at January 1, 2021 5:44 PM
Yes, things are bad in Sacramento, and I'm glad to be out…
But what's that got to do with variations in zoning and regulation between the different cities?
No contam fears if you drop into Tinseltown for a visit someday: Many communities are very well run, with zero concerns about the 'formality' of their plumbing. (I got there just after Hyperion got its upgrade.)
Crid at January 1, 2021 5:59 PM
You'd think they could have dragged it over and turned it into an addition on her parents' house. She was probably using their bathrooms and plumbing anyways.
Or maybe just get a permit for a kid's "playhouse."
But as others have pointed out, willful disregard of zoning codes negates any sympathy for her situation.
ruralcounsel at January 2, 2021 2:27 PM
I am so glad to hear that requirements originating in Sacramento do not apply to the whole state!
Never fear that an issue hasn't been addressed here before...
Radwaste at January 2, 2021 4:24 PM
Nobody said anything of the kind… Otherwise there wouldn't be local governments at all.
Crid at January 2, 2021 5:09 PM
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