You owe it to yourselves to learn about restrictions or live with them. =
Sure, you can spend a lot of money to fight them, but why bother. You =
don't have to live there.
I bought land to build a house in 1992 on some of the highest elevation =
in the county. It was a site condo situation with restrictions and =
bylaws. I was president of the association. The board of directors =
found out I was a ham. They ganged up on me and I lost. A "no outside =
antenna" amendment was passed with ease. I was the only NO vote. My =
"lot" was 3.3 acres 5 miles out of town in the country and now useless =
to me! The new amendments to the bylaws went into effect 2 weeks before =
we were to break ground on what was going to one of the nicest homes in =
the development. We stopped the plan to build and put the lot up for =
sale. I did not care what my wife said--I was not going to build there. =
I did not need neighbors like that anyway. They also passed all kind =
of other rules too, such as no horses, no shooting, etc. They brought =
the city to the country. They went after the hog farmer down the road =
too who lived on a Centennial Farm (in the family for over 100 years). =
They did not like "the smell of country" but they lost that one.
I found a better, but not as high location, without any restrictions. =
12 acres now and I have a 50 and a 100 foot towers, with more planned.
Being an attorney helped me see the handwriting and the conspiracy =
developing and I chose to get out before it was too late. You owe it to =
your selves to get legal advice BEFORE you sign the papers. And not all =
attorneys are up to speed on this stuff either! Get the ARRL book. It =
is pretty good. You will know what you are talking about when you go =
see a lawyer. Get 2 or more opinions. Find out who the better real =
estate attorneys are in your area, pay them well and get it in writing =
there are no problems when you go to put up your 100 foot tower! If you =
should run into problems later, you can always blame the lawyer--and =
people really like to do that. Most lawyers carry "malpractice =
insurance" that you can dip into also in the unlikely event there is a =
problem.
When we bought our property, I was assured in writing that there were no =
restrictions on antennas. I researched and by golly there were none--AT =
THAT TIME! My wife and I were really excited. But bylaws can and do =
get passed, and ownership of the land according to the recorded =
restrictions and covenants in the development bound you to belong to the =
association and abide by all the rules, regardless of when they are =
passed. No grandfathering here! I would have been stuck. It just =
never dawned on me that this would have occurred, but I am glad it =
did--at the time it did, and not after I had builders on site!
(I looked at the whole 80 acres before it had a road put in and parceled =
out--but spouse did not like it! I could have bought the whole thing =
for the price of 2 lots and had a great antenna farm and a great =
motocross track!)
After you sign, you are stuck. You will most likely lose a law suit. =
It is no one's fault but your own that you agreed to the conditions. =
The conditions were there, or could be put in place later, and you =
AGREED to that. It is a CONTRACT. Sure, there are exceptions and =
sometimes a ham prevails, often after expensive appeals, but why bother =
if you don't have to. Why spend the money if you don't need to in the =
first place. Contracts are made to be kept--that is what makes the =
world turn. Just like a car--if you do not like red--don't buy it, or =
paint it after you do buy it. Just don't whine about it because you =
bought a red car.
People who choose to live in a high rise in the cities, or PUD's =
(Planned Unit Developments) have problems. They can't go out the front =
door and hunt deer, take a leak, shoot guns, have livestock, have a live =
band play outside til 3:00 a.m., leave your garbage laying around until =
spring when you will get to it. Some places you can't even have a =
pickup truck in your driveway (Flossmore, IL?). They can't have big =
antennas either. That's life. This is America. Deal with it, move, or =
leave. You are not stuck here or where ever you are.
Rudy Marcelletti, K8SWD
--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
text/plain (text body -- kept)
text/html
---
|