zoning concerns - save a Studebaker

[lakeview7]

A member of our chapter is having difficulty with his local government over zoning and the presence of various Studebakers on his property. The property is within an area that was recently converted from an un-incorporated area into a city. The township trustees then passed a zoning code that basically required every vehicle on the property to be licensed and road worthy or the vehicle would be towed and baled.

Is there anyone out there in Stude country who has any ideas of approaches to slow down or stop this attempt to take away a number of Studebakers on their way back to life? This is pretty time sensitive, so I need your ideas, not your story at this time. Sorry about the hurry-don't mean to sound disinterested. Thanks for any help you can suggest besides hiring a good Chicago lawyer.

[hausdok]

Find out if Ohio has signed on for the SEMA initiative. It's basically a state law that gives folks the right to have a classic car. Washington passed its own version a year or so ago. Pretty sure that under state law Washington homeowners are now allowed to have one classic car on their property as long as it's not displayed in plain view. Maybe Ohio has adopted something similar.

[rodnutrandy]

I know wrecking yards in Ohio have to have fence to conseal there cars from view,can the same be done to your friends vehicles, If so .maybe get creative in consealment.

[BobPalma]

Like it or not, Larry; the fella is going to have to hire a good attorney; someone well versed in zoning and land use matters in the area. If nothing else, someone who can read the now-in-effect zoning and give him an honest assessment of what his rights are, and what he can do.

If he winds up having to dump a lot of cars, he needs to buy time and contract with an auctioneer in the area and have an auction. You guys are in Ohio, so at least it is centrally located. With warmer weather coming up, if they can stall the auction for good exposure and publicity here and elsewhere, maybe some of the better and/or rarer pieces can be saved...or at least parted by Studebaker people and not the jaws of [portable] death used by a salvage company.

Best wishes with the endeavor. BP

[aenthal]

Create a "garage" for them. Maybe his area allows the fabric on metal pole variety.
Have him look up your local codes to find out just how they define a garage.

Another alternative, if the zoning codes won't allow him to make a garage of/in his back yard, is for everyone to borrow one of his cars.
Of course, if he has 100 inoperative cars and you have only 14 people, that won't work.
Our chapter has the "Studebaker Ranch" (really just a member's back yard) where about 10 wayward Studes can wait out their time until they find new owners.

There is a way to do this, though it will probably involve adding money somewhere (to a lawyer, or creating buildings, or finding another storage space).

[Boothguy]

When this happened to me I was granted a stay by getting a building permit for a storage building. I had a year to build which gave me enough time to stash the cars. I eventually built the garage but the issue had died by the time I got around to it. Usually a neighbor has initiated the complaint, if you can mollify them the authorities will often lose interest. Good Luck

[Milaca]

This may require an attorney, but where there is a law there is usually a loop-hole. He had the cars there before his land was annexed into the city so maybe there is some grounds for being "grandfathered in". Perhaps by constructing a privacy fence around the area, the city would withdraw there demands.
As for no vehicles without license and being operable, what defines a vehicle? If these Studes can't move, then how are they a vehicle? Sounds to me like they are lawn ornaments.
Or, line these Studes up around the perimeter of the property and call them a fence.
Leave the Studes where they sit and proclaim the land as an outdoor Studebaker museum.
Where there is a will, there is a way! Good luck!

[kurtruk]

Unless the property owner has put a burr under someone's saddle, these issues rarely proceed as quickly as threatened or posted. I am confidant they will have more time than it currently seems. There are many processes legally that a city has to go through to carry out actually removing vehicles. Attempts to cooperate with jurisdictions usually buys a good amount of time.

And Milaca, nothing personal, but your suggestions...

"As for no vehicles without license and being operable, what defines a vehicle? If these Studes can't move, then how are they a vehicle? Sounds to me like they are lawn ornaments.
Or, line these Studes up around the perimeter of the property and call them a fence.
Leave the Studes where they sit and proclaim the land as an outdoor Studebaker museum."

While creative thinking, those are things equivalent to thumbing one's nose at the officials. Might work in a feel-good movie, but probably not in today's real world.

[swvalcon]

when I lived in Phoenix. a guy had a 63 corvette rolling shell in his back yard. Not sure how the city even knew it was there as it was behind a fence. Any way they told him he had to get rid of it and he had so many days to do it. He built a large steel pole in his front yard then had the car mounted on top at a slight angle. So when they took him to court he told the judge it was a work of automotive art and no different than a horse or lion or anything else that people had mounted in their front yard. Much to the citys surprise the judge sided with him and told them like it or not he's right and it can stay. They finally told him if he would put it back behind the fence they would forget the whole thing.

[Flashback]

I have dealt with these issues for 13 years. Here in the city where I work, we have always considered this as being a
"existing nonconformity" (grandfathered in) if it fell under a zoning ordinance. However, this is considered here in Alabama , in most cities to be a nusiance ordinance rather than a zoning ordinance. In either case, consideration has been given to the fact that the cars were there first, and usually worked out with the city. I would appeal to the city council for a more reasonable solution, such as a privacey fence, in the back yard to conceal the cars. If not a reasonable length of time to move them. Contact someone ( a council person maybe) and ask someone to let you read the ordinance. It should have a existing nonconformity written in.

[BobPalma]

when I lived in Phoenix. a guy had a '63 Corvette rolling shell in his back yard. Not sure how the city even knew it was there as it was behind a fence. Any way they told him he had to get rid of it and he had so many days to do it. He built a large steel pole in his front yard then had the car mounted on top at a slight angle. So when they took him to court he told the judge it was a work of automotive art and no different than a horse or lion or anything else that people had mounted in their front yard. Much to the city's surprise the judge sided with him and told them like it or not he's right and it can stay. They finally told him if he would put it back behind the fence they would forget the whole thing.

Now that is funny. BP

[raoul5788]

In my town a local business has a statue of Paul Bunyan by the street. The town complained that it was too tall. The owner put a flag on it, now it's a flag pole! No restrictions on the height of a flag pole!

[showbizkid]

Hey, that's a Muffler Man! Those things are actually designated as historic landmarks in several places. Here's the whole story:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/muffler/origin.html

Sorry, topic drift...

[lakeview7]

Thank you to everyone for your responses. I have shared your ideas and the fight/resistance is continuing using several of your ideas. As always, this SDC Forum can access collective knowledge unavailable anywhere else. Thanks.
Larry

[gordr]

Amazing, ain't it, how all the great architectural wonders of the ancient world got built, without there being any zoning laws at all. The Pyramids, the Acropolis, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, you name it. Now, conformity rules the day. Remember those Teepee motels? There's one still standing at Wharton, Texas. Bet you'd never get an OK to build a new one, anywhere.