Posted on 07/10/2012 9:44:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Marin man's lifestyle is efficient, but he failed to apply for proper permits.
David Hoffman is not your typical outlaw. For one, every conversation veers toward inevitable topic of conservation and sustainability. He can’t understand why people need things like septic tanks – or whey they use perfectly good drinking water to wash their cars.
It’s not Hoffman’s ideas that got him into trouble. It was the execution. Forty-years of it.
Four decades ago, Hoffman started some home improvements on his house in the wooded hills of the Marin County town of Lagunitas. He harbored ideas and theories of how people could live more sustainably. He started building.
He dug a massive valley near the slope of his home and installed a pond. In the middle of it he built a concrete boat to house a 15-foot well. The groundwater would refill the pond, through a sun-powered pump.
As the owner of a tea distribution business, Hoffman also built a tea-house with ornate metal carvings of dragons and a sloped tile roof.
He carved elaborate caves to dry his rare tea leaves. He constructed a tower bearing a solar shower that hovers over a moat carrying recycled water from the house.
“Most people come here, they see the visual, they see the structures,” said Hoffman. “For me what’s important is the systems behind it.”
His systems, include a small wood box filled with earthworms, whose job it is to digest leftover food scraps, and cleanse recycled water that runs from the kitchen sink.
Another curious feature, is the sight of an outdoor toilet. For a time, Hoffman eschewed a septic system in favor of the worms taking care of the human waste.
“I have three different designs on the property for turning human manure or body waste into a valuable fertilizer,” said Hoffman.
In all, some 30 homemade structures fill the property, many partially unfinished.
“I guess you could say I had a vision,” said Hoffman. “ I had a dream.”
But Hoffman’s vision had one very fatal flaw. He never got permits for any of his projects. For over two decades, county officials red-tagged his buildings. But Hoffman carried on.
“I just build it anyway,” Hoffman said. “I figure there will be value in what I’ve done.”
But county officials didn’t see it that way. His fines have run up to over $200 thousand dollars, and he’s been ordered to tear down all 30 of his illegal structures by August 1st.
“David Hoffman ignored the county for twenty years,” said Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey. “It came at his own peril.”
Hoffman has been locked in a legal battle with the county for years. In county reports, inspectors would return to the property to inspect previously red-tagged buildings, only to find new ones had sprouted up in the interim.
“We need rules, but we need to have people who have ideas,” reasoned Hoffman.
After repeated efforts to get Hoffman to comply, county officials referred the case to an administrative law judge this past January.
“We hope the hearing officer’s decision will have a positive side by motivating David to turn over a new leaf and begin to improve his property,” wrote Marin County Community Development Agency director Brian Crawford in a statement.
Kinsey said he hopes the county can broker a deal that might allow Hoffman to keep his home. He said the county is also exploring the creation of a non-profit organization that could oversee the property.
“It would be tragic in my opinion, to see that piece of work destroyed,” said Kinsey.
Hoffman is also holding out hope he and his wife can somehow keep the property, the buildings and the ecological experiments. In the meantime, there’s a tea house to finish, a garden to plant, and the bell tower still needs wood slats to keep out the raccoons.
Bay Area Ping: It’s not okay, unless we force you to do it.
It’s his property, let him do what he wants with it - as long as it doesn’t cause real problems for his neighbors.
On the one hand, his innovative, peaceful, imaginitive spirit is to be praised and admired and protected.
On the other hand, he no doubt voted extreme liberal socialist collective for the last forty years, which resulted in the the government kill-droids he’s now facing.
Therefore, in honor of his politics, which has resulted in the murder of 100 million people in the last hundred years, I say everything he built should be torn down and destroyed, and burned, and the ground salted, and he should be billed for the cost of the destruction, and stripped searched and jailed until he pays.
Politics isn’t just a river in Egypt.
Wow. Actual duckspeak. Just wow.
I’m too tired now to type a bunch, so thanks for doing it for me. Perfectly said...
And now the other 49 need to ignore California!
bookmark
One thing I’ve never understood is why our home plumbing isn’t built so that bath water isn’t just dumped down the sewer but instead is used to water the yard and garden. It seems like such a waste, water with a little soap and dirt in it would be perfectly fine to water one’s yard.
so that bath water isn’t just dumped down the sewer but instead is used to water the yard and garden.
* * *
Such systems exist. They are considered experimental and you have to get permits out the wazoo for them here in Cal., but in theory, you can install a graywater sprinkling system for your yard if your perc will allow it.
There are many reasons call it Klownifornia. Some are found on both sides of this issue.
One man's "visionary" is another man's "kook". I come down on the side of "kook". Society has rules to help people coexist. These rules are for everyone, including the "greens". If you don't like the rules, change them. Just imagine what traffic would be like if electric cars could ignore stop signs and speed limits.
It’s the “pee” factor.
Put kids in a tub of warm water and it makes them pee. Now, you would not want to put that in your yard do you?
Wait..........dogs pee in the yard so it has to be OK. Problem solved.
I'd say they were totally unfinished. Maybe partially finished.
Thanks. It’s nice to know that someone somewhere has considered this. It seems like something that would be pretty simple to implement. Of course, there are idiots out there that would dump gasoline down their drain so those types of people would have to be taken into consideration.
But experimental? Hahaha.
My prediction on the next great Al Gore-type environmental global warming-type disaster in order to extract more money and power from people? Water. We’re running out of water and/or the water is contaminated. Watch and see if it doesn’t happen.
When we were building our house, the very progressive city of Austin only allowed (and had only very recently allowed) washing machine discharge for greywater. Halfway thru construction they decided to allow the rest, but by then it was too late for us.
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