20K and 2.5 yr fight secures a win over HOA for RV parking

fj12ryder wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

happybooker1 wrote:
A couple of observations: if you view the article that is one HONKING BIG rig. I *think* they could have got a shorter one.

However..... maybe all this happened AFTER they bought their house. They bought the RV, stored it offsite, no problem. Son got MS, THEN they decided to retrofit the RV (which they already had) for Son's illness and THEN found out about the 2.5' problem of parking it at their house.

AND.... whole house generators are frequently NOT usable during hurricanes or the aftermath. If the gas is shut off for broken/flooded/whatever lines -- no whole-house generator.

I'm also "assuming" they would load everyone up and evacuate the area in the RV if a hurricane was coming. I would NOT want to deal with one stored somewhere else in the panic that was Katrina, and Rita in Houston. I was here for that one.

Yes, in theory your argument makes sense, but no where in the article are any of those concerns mentioned. There is no mention of their seeking a variance. There is no mention of the zoning commission denying a variance.

Again, the article is missing the most important factors in the case: did the owners seek a variance and were denied; did they just ignore the rules and do what they wanted to do; did the zoning commission approve other variances in the subdivision but deny theirs: and so on.

Quoted from the article:
"The zoning board wouldn't let the family slide and denied its request for a variance."

And that is the slant put on the article by whomever wrote it. "wouldn't let the family slide" wouldn't be the actual ruling from either a zoning board or a court. The board denied the variance request. Why, we may never know. It could very well be for the reasons stated by many posters here, that the variance was needed because the family had a large RV which they viewed as a luxury item, not a necessity. It was not something like they needed additional 3 feet to accommodate a normal handicapped van, or needed to park in front of the house to provide easy access to the handicapped ramps that access the house. I can see where it would be a tough call either way.