Guy tries to do something nice for his boys and gets a visit from the 'treeNazi's'.
Posted on 10/17/2011 6:06:46 PM PDT by Immerito
A zoning board in Fairfax County, Va., is standing firm in its decision to order a war veteran to destroy a tree house he built for his two young sons.
County officials determined Mark Grapin, an Army aviation specialist, violated zoning regulations when he built a tree house in his backyard.
“The boys wanted a tree house,” Grapin told Fox News Radio, explaining it was a promise he made to his 8-year-old and 10-year-old sons before he left for Iraq. “It was a commitment I made to the boys and, frankly, we should do our best to keep our commitments to our children."
So when Grapin returned home, he followed through on that promise and headed off to the local home improvement store. He said he contacted Fairfax County and was given assurances that he didn’t need any special permits to build the $1,400 tree house.
But it turns out – that wasn’t exactly accurate.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
For crying out loud..
What has happened to the heart of America?
This man fights for us, we are lucky he made it back.
Can they not do this one small thing for him?
A $1400 tree house? When we were kids, we just found some old lumber in our garages and brought it all over to our house from around the neighborhood and built it in our apple tree. That said, WTF? A PERMIT for a tree house? What is this world coming to?
Let the kids have the damn treehouse! Do it for the chirren!
He should just tear it down and not get screwed out of any more money. How dare he think he could do something so provocative as build a treehouse? I just hope he does not let the boys open a lemonade stand without a permit!
Come the revolution there should be a special firing squad for zoning officials and building inspectors.
Not only that - what happened to freedom? What happened to owning your domain? Doing what you wish with your property without all these regulations? I mean come on - a tree house?
Lemonade stands are illegal too! I can go on, but I’m too sad for words!
Guy tries to do something nice for his boys and gets a visit from the 'treeNazi's'.
Pictures, need pictures of the tree house.
I’m fighting similiar B,S,
The libs want everyone to go green so I decided to invest in solar pv panels for my roof. I’m in a very economically impacted county in Florida. I have been waiting weeks for permits that should have taken days. Just being told they don’t have staff.
What gets me is the word PERMIT. I own the land and home. It’s a farm with plenty of acreage to boot.
I say this country will never go back to the founders design until this concept of PERMIT needed on your own land, goes away. Getting ready for the big collapse.
It has my vote.
Good grief, with all the problems this country faces, some busybodies have nothing better to do with their time than this. Libertarians ought to tell them to mind their own damned business! The treehouse isn’t hurting anybody.
The city did the same thing to us for one that we build as kids.
Of course it had carpeting and aluminum siding LoL.
Worse than that, we killed a good cherry tree building that thing in it.
Hey! This is Amerika! Everyone knows you can’t build a tree house for your kids in Amerika!!!
Fairfax Co. figures. I hate dealing with those idiots.
Made up of poor shots and misanthropic dykes who are good shots.
“Not only that - what happened to freedom? What happened to owning your domain? Doing what you wish with your property without all these regulations? I mean come on - a tree house?
Lemonade stands are illegal too! I can go on, but I’m too sad for words!”
_____________________________________________________
I had both when I was a kid, and my twin brothers each had giant Gilbert chemistry sets, which I am sure would stagger a hazmat team today.
OK, that was in the 50s, when America was America.
God only knows where that America has gone.
Chris Plante was all over this story on his morning talk radio show on WMAL 630 AM/105.9 FM late last week.
Sound about par for the course for Fairfax County.
Prince George’s County, MD would have fined the dad into the Stone Age before the first planks were nailed in place.
Hope the dad wins.
Jack.
They gave him bad info on needing a permit, ergo, YOUR FAULT!!! Leave(pun) the man alone, just leave him alone...
“I can go on, but I’m too sad for words!”
I understand, and so am I.
This country is over-regulated to death!
HIS property, HIS tree, HIS tree house!
Leave the man alone!
We’ve become a nation of busybodies.
No kidding. Where is the fun for boys if there is no chance of getting hurt?
“I say this country will never go back to the founders design until this concept of PERMIT needed on your own land, goes away.”
I couldn’t agree more!
Honestly, it's very blah. Not much of a risk of life on that one. Not much of a 'tree' involved as well. ugh.
We were blessed to have them in Live Oaks or other types of trees, not a telephone pole.
Carpeting and aluminum siding?
You boys really roughed it up in that tree house, eh?
The human scum attracted to such positions have a very, very deep sadistic streak. They have evil in their hearts. They live to make people's lives miserable.
In a truly free society there would be NO government inspectors or government code requirements for anything done on one's property.
The marketplace would be superior to government in solving ANY and ALL problems that government "codes" reportedly solve. The mechanisms to accomplish this are even allowed to come into existence because government parasites have moved in with monopoly control.
They were scraps.
A picture of the tree house would be a nice touch, wouldn’t it?
Nothing available at the linked article ...
I wonder why not?
My boys and their friends built one on a small wooded area on our property,but in a thickly settled suburban area.
Took them about a week.
Then it was torched and no one had any idea who did it.
No harm or damage to anything but the “cabin”.
God,am I glad those days are behind me.
“The human scum attracted to such positions have a very, very deep sadistic streak. They have evil in their hearts. They live to make people’s lives miserable. “
The same thing can be said of virtually every social worker.
I have first hand experience as a grandfather.
10 man squad, armed with double-barrel 12 gauges, no blanks, all barrels carrying 000 buck, all barrels fired simultaneously at a range of 10 feet.
And you thought you owned your property, didn’t you?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...liberals hate children, they hate the innocence of childhood and the freedom and wonder it holds.
Don’t be sad, get angry.
Many years back my dad use to talk about the little one horse towns filled with little dictators. Nothing has changed in the last 60 years. We still have one horse towns fulled with little dictators...
It is about as unAmerican as you can get. It turns the American system on its head. Most zoning codes start with the premise: Anything not allowed in this code is forbidden,
The whole American system is based on the idea that anything that is not forbidden is allowed!
I have lived in Waukesha and Milwaukee Wis, Indianapolis and Logansport, Indiana....plus a few other places.I have sided a couple of buildings, built a 60X100 business building, numerous storage sheds, a garage, roofed several buildings, did numerous remodeling (interior) jobs, tore down several out buildings etc. etc. and NEVER applied for a “building permit” I don’t need my community’s “permission” to do anything
I have seen a good number of friends have their families destroyed by social workers. The way they described the zealousness of these government sadists left me speechless. Most social workers would have easily fit into 30's Germany.
If they make him take it down they should give back all of his money. But you know they won't.
Awww - your mouse not working? You can't click on the link?
from the pic's posted it looks as nice as the gym set the obama’s put in our White House grounds and I bet his kids never spent an hour enjoying it.. and our next President will just have to have it dismantled as well...
I miss the America of the 50’s what fun we had...the kids today don't know what it is to play hid and seek, or cowboys and Indians nor hopscotch...kids were allowed to be kids then.
Man, buy a boat, take them fishing.
In the meantime, Grapin has had to pay nearly $1,800 in permits and fees to build the $1,400 tree house.
If they make him take it down they should give back all of his money. But you know they won’t.
This to me is the key thing today about zoning and permits. It’s all about revenue to the City/county. I had a zoning Nazi once who spent all of her time driving around looking for infractions. My personal infraction was that I had mildew on the north side of my house. I had three days from the issuance of the notice to ‘get it fixed’, or the fines would start.
Living in swampy Florida means that you ‘will’ have mildew on the north side of your house most of the year. I had a pressure washer to keep the house and driveway clean of the damn stuff.
I found out later that they had a photo data base that they would use to see if any unauthorized, ie. not paid the proper fee, work had been done to the properties.
Glad to see I am not the only one that does not care for this particular breed of vermin.
You wouldn't want to know what I would propose for child welfare types.
Apparently at least one of the neighbors complained anonymously.
Gubmint needs cash. That’s why the gumbint issues building permits, parking tickets, have red-light camera’s and all sorts of other creative ways to generate “cash”.
“What is this world coming to?” Hell in a handbasket, and it’s already here.
We gots to continue feeding the beast or it will devour us all. As it is now, it’s just devouring us a little bit at a time.
I see the vast majority of the people on this thread agree with my way of thinking when it comes to zoning and “permits” to do stuff to your own property. You would be surprised though at how many so called conservatives think zoning and building inspectors are a necessary evil. They are the people who put property values above freedom. They would rather be able to tell their neighbor how to build, what color he can paint his house and how many cars he can have parked on his own property than to have the freedom that comes with owning property in fee simple which is theoretically how we of the USA supposedly own property.
That’s just unbelievable! I’d have to find ways to mess with them if they started harassing me with trivial crapola like that. Maybe go over and spray their house with mildew while they were at work. You know, like that spray-on plant starter they put down on landscaping projects? Or find an opening and fill the interior of their house with a mixture of mildew starter and humid air.
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