October 5, 2006
HOW CAN ANYTHING SMELL SO BAD LIVE AND SO GOOD DEAD:
Neighbors howl over 3 (stinky) little pigs (Carl Matzelle, 10/05/06, Cleveland Plain Dealer)
You think your neighbors are bad? What if they weighed 300 pounds and rooted in the mud?What if they smelled so bad you couldn't use your screened-in porch or hot tub?
Dorothy and Andrew Verbus say it's even worse than that. They say they can't go outside because of the three pigs in a pen next door.
"The odors are awful, noxious, but words can't really describe it," Dorothy Verbus said, pointing toward the back yard of their $258,000 ranch home in Lorain County.
"No barbecues, no outdoor parties, nobody wants to come over."
Jim Warger built the pen about three years ago to raise the pigs for meat, but complaints from neighbors have been increasing.
The Verbuses, who have lived in Columbia Township for 14 years, have taken the matter to township trustees.
Trustees and county health officials said they can't do anything about the pigs because all township land is zoned for agricultural use.
"Yes, it smells, but he's not violating any nuisance laws," said Robert Goard, Lorain County Health District sanitarian.
There's a problem just begging for vigilante justice...and a barbecue pit...
What's the whole story? I've seen it happen too many times - as suburbs and exurbs expand, rural farmland is given over to the development of large homes, and suddenly the farms (and associated livestock) that have productively occupied the region for tens to hundreds of years become nuisances, soon to be regulated into submission and zoned out of existence.
On the other hand, if it's just a case of some idiot deciding to put a pigpen in his back yard instead of an in-ground pool, I have no sympathy for him. A chicken coop would be a great deal more sanitary, and less offensive to the neighbors.
Posted by: M. at October 5, 2006 10:22 AMUp in greater Northeast Philadelphia stands an airport going back to the early days of aviation. Commuter aircraft and general aviation types are in and out of it constatly, and it has an excellent safety record.
You all know what I am going to write. The neighbors, every single one of whom knew well that it was there when each house was built or bought, can still muster the impertinence to call every few years for closing our airport.
The same thing happens with shooting ranges. No matter how safely these are set up, no matter how objectively moderate the noise of firing may be, newcomers still attempt to aggrandize the value of their land by deminishing the utility of their neighbors' lands.
Fortunately, in the case of shooting ranges, many states, as part of the state-by-state, NRA-led, gun-rights revolution, have enacted range-protection statutes grandfathering in existing ranges.
Posted by: Lou Gots at October 5, 2006 11:23 AMThankfully there's no right of airlines to create such a public nuisance.
Posted by: oj at October 5, 2006 11:54 AM