Hello, Pam. I live in the Ms Gulf Coast. Along with the Post Kat rebuild shuffle came more attention to zoning and property rights, and the rights of others not to have a neighboring property negatively impact value. If you refuse to straighten up and clean up the city or county may do it for you--then send you a hefty bill. But, if you are not getting any clean up/put up notices, you are probably OK.

I think of property owner rights as similar to the right to choose and express religious beliefs, the right to free speech...with restrictions for the good of the whole, and as long as we don't infringe on anyone else's rights by enjoying ours. Of course if you do not live in a subdivision with covenants, you have more freedom. But likely, the property values will be lower too.

My husband and your husband would probably get along well. When we were looking for a home I simply knew not to go to areas with additional covenants and restrictions. YET, some people prefer these covenants and restrictions because it helps them maintain a sense of order.

I don't know about your area--but our truly rural as in 0 zoning specs, or restrictions is seriously depleted. I guess if you have a fence or tree/shrub border around your property folks can't tell much about neighboring properties.

Hello, Pam. I live in the Ms Gulf Coast. Along with the Post Kat rebuild shuffle came more attention to zoning and property rights, and the rights of others not to have a neighboring property negatively impact value. If you refuse to straighten up and clean up the city or county may do it for you--then send you a hefty bill. But, if you are not getting any clean up/put up notices, you are probably OK.

I think of property owner rights as similar to the right to choose and express religious beliefs, the right to free speech...with restrictions for the good of the whole, and as long as we don't infringe on anyone else's rights by enjoying ours. Of course if you do not live in a subdivision with covenants, you have more freedom. But likely, the property values will be lower too.

My husband and your husband would probably get along well. When we were looking for a home I simply knew not to go to areas with additional covenants and restrictions. YET, some people prefer these covenants and restrictions because it helps them maintain a sense of order.

I don't know about your area--but our truly rural as in 0 zoning specs, or restrictions is seriously depleted. I guess if you have a fence or tree/shrub border around your property folks can't tell much about neighboring properties.

Pam, this is a great topic and one that I have been dealing with locally in SC.  When we talk about property rights, we can not forget that the Government reserves the right of Police Powers over ALL land and that includes Zoning.  We do not have the right to do what we want with our land, we only have the right to use it as an asset, ultimately our Government still owns it totally- remember the Bundle of Rights? 

We as agents need to do a better job of explaining this fact to buyers and sellers so that this tension will not exist so strongly in the future.  To use your cars as an example, what rain run-off plan do you have in place?  In my experience, including our own lot, most people with hobby cars do not think that their few cars would matter, but they do.  Our County imposed huge storm water fees on people with more than 2 roof-tops on their parcels, because the State believes that those with "extra" roofs are causing the water contamination issues in our creeks, while private environmentalist in the state say the condemnations are from the large number of unintentional and unplanned, private hobby shops, small engine repair shops, metal fabricators, etc. that may not have an extra building.  this is a hot topic not just from the "Curb Appeal" angel but the environmental one, too.

Even if you do not have local zoning in place, state and federal laws are still governing your property and maintaining the future right of government to apply local restrictions.

My current issue is the opposite, I am for a local Historic Overlay District, but our elected officials in an election year are worried about upsetting voters by disturbing property rights.  They too have forgotten the "Bundle of Rights" reserved by government.

Suzi - the area I live in has few "subdivisions".  I live in an unincorporated part of the county where people generally have tracts of land of at least 5 acres.  We do have a zoning/use plan for the county.   Our county planning commission does not have the manpower to check on zoning violations and generally they are only addressed if a neighbor complains. 

Jane-My local area does not have the funds to police zoning violations on their own and they are very much in favor of individual property rights.  The other county I work in (Desoto County) has experienced much more explosive growth and they have much tighter zoning laws.  They have adopted a stormwater run-off regulation.  I hear you on the environmental angle.  My husband has always been concerned about how his hobby affects the environment.  He is very careful about not contaminating the ground.  Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people who don't see anything wrong with dumping oil, gas, etc. right on the ground.