Why wouldn’t the YFZ ranch & the FLDS just be honest from the start? Out of character for them, I guess.
And then we're supposed to believe them over people *with an axe to grind*?
I have some land in FL to sell someone.
I know if a hunting retreat turned into a place where there was a temple, a waste treatment facility, a 29,000-square-foot house (for Warren Jeffs),a meeting house, and several large log and concrete homes. Plus generators, gardens, a grain silo, and a large stone quarry & who knows what else I wouldn't be a happy neighbor. Plus the addition of 500 people ( give or take) that were my new neighbors I would be wondering how I wasn't made aware of it before it happened.
According to preliminary tax assessments, about $3 million worth of buildings have been built. The sect has been fined over $34,000 for environmental violations in connection with buildings on the ranch, mainly due to its failure to obtain the required permits for its cement-mixing operations.
So they didn't even do things the legal way.