I see these signs on the road when entering some small towns as I drive through rural parts of Ohio. They’ll say “zoning enforced” or maybe even “zoning code strictly enforced.” What’s the point of these signs? Is it to prevent someone from rolling into town and building a house in a commercial zone as they pass through? 
Relatively simple – it’s to alert someone coming to the town with the expectation of building,. buying, or starting something that he needs to check with the local planning and zoning officials to be sure th at what he plans is located in an area legal for it to be in, or to get the property rezoned if appropriate. (I.e., if I’m Rob Walton and buy 100 acres of vacant ex-farmland on the edge of town from Farmer Brown to build a new Walmart, I need to have it rezoned commercial rather than agricultural.)
Eeps – I meant to add this to the last post, but I don’t act fast enough. Less that it’s in the proper zone (though that too) than that it complies with the regulations, which are usually the more important part. A zoning law is not just, “You can’t build a store here; it’s a residential zone” so much as it is, “Your store must have one parking place for every thirty square feet of retail sales area, it must have an approved drainage plan for the area of store and parking lot, it must be set back 30 feet from the property line…” All that good stuff.
But still, what’s the point of alerting someone? If you’re buying property, you’d have to be too stupid for words to not be aware of the existence of zoning ordinances, and I can’t imagine any court buying a claim like “Well, they didn’t tell me there was zoning when I entered the city limits, so now they have to exempt me from the law.”
Also, variances not allowed. :eek:
Zoning laws also control whether you can have animals on the property. This might be particularly relevant in a rural area – no, you can’t have 3 milk cows and a flock of chickens and a rooster that crows at random intervals all hours of the day and night.
Nope. That’s one thing every zoning law is required to have, to provide for unique conditions creating unavoidable hardship or practical difficulty. The requirement comes from the original Supreme Court case that said zoning is constitutional, and to not permit variances results in an illegal “taking” of the value of the land. Elmwood or Plnnr can go into more detail on that.
Actually, there are odd situations. If you had no reason to check out whether a given property was subject to a zoning law, began construction in a way obvious to a passerby, and nobody stopped you, you’ve established a nonconforming situation, and, within reason, they have to let you proceed. Your right to use your property is constitutionally guaranteed; it can be regulated, but there has to be some reasonable expectation that you should be aware that such a regulation exists. (Using this excuse in, say White Plains NY or Schaumburg IL would probably get you laughed out of court – but what about Buffalo County, Montana? Should you be expected to know they have a zoning law in place that requires your cabin-by-a-stream be 100 feet back from the stream?) I live in an unincorporated community in Franklin County, NC. There is zoning; it’s at the county level. And whenever I cross the county line, which is a couple of miles from my home, I see the signs that say ‘FRANKLIN COUNTY / ZONING ENFORCED’
Hmm… well I guess it makes sense. It just seems strange that someone would simply drive into town for the first time with the intent of building something.
Anyway, thanks for the responses.
Is it possible that the signs might be a warning to itenerant construction outfits, like those guys that go around offering to asphalt your driveway or some such? Or like the deluge of roofer guys that decended on Florida after the hurricanes?
One city near me has a sign stating “parking regulations enforced”,
There is no sign stating they have alternate side parking* so other than the “no parking from corner to here” , I’m not sure what those parking regulations are.
Brian
- some places around here only allow parking on one side of teh street (south and east on odd # days, north and west on even – for snow removal)
Close, but not quite. “Nonconforming” means that the use was legally established in the first place. You obtian no nonconforming rights to a use that is instituted illegally. If a zoning ordinance exists, and you construct something in violation of it, you’re not nonconforming, you’re in violation of the law. For instance, if I buy property in a residential district and start a auto mobile repair shop in my garage (which is not permitted under the ZO), and no one catches me for 20 years, I’m not nonconforming - I’ve just been in violation for 20 years.
Yup, and door to door salesmen, too. Some towns actually build into their zonging ordinances what commercial activity can take place at what times and under what circumstances.
Ohio townships have very limited home rule power. In rural areas, many townships have no zoning. The signs are a reminder that a place is zoned; it’s both a warning to “git the hell of my land”-type property owners that generally dislike government land use regulation, and a reminder to residents that they probably can’t operate a machine shop or auto body shop out of their residences. (Heavy vehicle-related uses in residential areas are a common problem in unzoned rural areas.)
But … a few state courts have ruled that if someone has been conducting a use that is not permitted under zoning for a certain period of time, and the political subdivision responsible for land use enforcement in the area was aware of the violation but never pursued it until now, the use becomes non-comforming in much the same way that certain crimes cannot be punished after a statute of limitations period passes.
My opinion is that a zoning violation is usually an ongoing illegal activity, not a one-time event like an assault, and thus the statute of limitations is irrelevent. Unfortunately, a few judges disagree.
Before I forget, the “Zoning code enforced” signs are common in exurban and rural New York, too. Townships in New York have far more home rule authority than those in Ohio, and unzoned towns are very rare. Zoning regulations in NY townships tends to be much stricter than in Ohio townships. Even in NYS, though, the signs are just there as a reminder that you can’t operate an auto salvage operation on your farm, or store construction materials and equipment on just any old vacant parcel.
This just goes to show how state specific land use regulation is - I’ve brought cases to court involving uses that are more than 60 years old and that have received erroneous approvals and the judge has told the property owners, “Sorry, but estoppel doesn’t apply in this case and there isn’t anything stopping the local government from correcting itself. You’ll have to comply.”
That’s considered peddling, which usually isn’t covered by zoning laws. Peddling is usually regulated in a municipal code. A typical peddling law usually requires door-to-door salespeople operating in the jurisdiction to get a business license, just like any other business; restricts the hours that a peddler can visit your house, and requires them to respect “no solicitation” signs and requests to leave the property. Non-profit fundraising (kids selling candy for band uniforms, irritating PIRG activists, etc.), polling, political campaigning and religious witnessing are usually exempt from licensing requirements, but “no solicitation” signs and “get the hell off my land!” requests must still be respected. Some more enlightened municipalities prohibit all door-to-door sales.
Each city or state has its own quirks about parking laws in the absense of signs. Some prohibit on-street overnight parking, some prohibit parking on the same side of the street as fire hydrants, some don’t allow parking on bridges or underneath overpasses, some prohibit on-street parking if the snow is over a few inches deep and the street is unplowed. A judge will tell you that ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it.
I put the question to our township attorney under the provisio that we don’t want to be billed for it. So if he knows it off hand, then I may be able to give an answer. At least for Michigan.