Farmer builds castle with no permit and hides behind hay for years

A British farmer built an entire literal castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations. Apparently in England, if you get away with building without a permit for four years they can't make you tear it down--weird. See the full story in at Dailymail.co.uk, and it includes plenty of pictures of the guy's house. The article is pretty entertaining, includes commentary from the bureaucrats stating that he "built the house without planning permission, not sought retrospective planning permission." So the arrogant jerk not only didn't bother to get the permit but failed to pay for the retroactive permit after he was caught. Keep in mind that the planners do the same over here as well, retroactive permits show it isn't about safety or a legitimate purpose but instead just a revenue generator.

I guess the moral of the story is that he should have left the hay wall up, as apparently nobody had a complaint about a 40 foot tall rotting wall of hay covered with aging blue tarps flapping in the wind--that's OK, but that Tudor style castle is an unacceptable eyesore that has to go because you didn't pay for that retroactive permit.

JZ Knight trying to stop new homes in Yelm, Washington

JZ Knight of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is filing an appeal on permits granted to her neighbors, several builders trying to develop their land. This is just more NIMBYism and intolerance of one's neighbors. One might think that an "enlightened" person would love thy neighbor, but I obviously don't know what I'm talking about because I don't make hundreds of thousands giving seminars on enlightenment. Full story is in the The Olympian.

Also, the hearings are tonight at the Yelm city hall at 7:30 so if you're interested in this, you might want to show up.

Vacant Land Sales in Thurston County, Washington for December 2007

Olympia:

Nancy Robinson sold 1.8 acres to Jamie and Amy Lambert of Olympia, WA for $45,000.

Gordon and Alice Wallace sold 2.5 acres to Curtis Wambach of Lacey, WA for $60,000.

Peter and Cynthia Skowlund sold 1.62 acres to Angeline Larson of Olympia, WA for $175,000.

Lacey:

Dan Drewry sold .39 acres to Ronald and Josefina Pilon of Olympia, WA for $119,950.

Jeffrey Hardie sold .42 acres to Floyd and Michaela Pinkett of Lacey, WA for $100,000.

Yelm:

Evan Crawford sold .19 acres to Mike and Kelly Kempinski of Yelm, WA for $27,000.

Thomas Zweiger sold .24 acres to David Christoper and Anne Slizynski of Yelm, WA for $87,500.

Barbara Hutchinson sold 9.7 acres to Viewmont Place LLC of Seattle, WA for $1,943,000.

Tenino:

Calvin Braun sold 28.92 acres to Gordon and Beverlee Boe of Olympia, WA for $500,000.

Information based on county records but not guaranteed.