White washing Loxahatchee And Palm Beach County Code

It's getting worse -

Years ago, they tried to take away our right to farm, by limiting our property rights. We are Agriculture Residential zoned, and in our Comprehensive plan says 'guaranteed by right'... to have livestock and equines in the Acreage and Loxahatchee areas.

Slowly, and without ado, or any public discussion, our rights keep getting chipped away.

Last year, I stumbled upon two sentences (that is all it was) in the ULDC, that had been strickened from the code, no one picked up on it, and no one in County staff said a word to anyone - deleted. GONE....  One sentence changed with a few words, and decades of property rights gone... slashed. We've been arguing to get it back for over one year -- County and zoning/code departments just giving us the run around....

It had to do with owning vehicles, sport vehicles, RV's, horse trailer's, Swamp buggies, Air boat's, on your land. (This will be another post.)

More recently, this is happening... again....

Another recent attempt at whitewashing is code hitting up small farm homesteads with tiny coops, and claiming they need to be torn down... OR permitted... OR get an engineering survey done for the FEMA flood plain management requirements. Needless, these requirements are based on large barns, larger then a simple dog house 'type' lean to - housing small goats. They are also exempted in the FEMA manual based on size. (the county fails to acknowledge this part)

The homeowners get nervous, code officers threaten fines, liens, and hearings, needing of attorneys. The average owner is going to worry, and pull it all down to fall into compliance.

That is exactly what the county wants to happen. They are wrong...  and... someone needs to put this to the test! Sadly, young families with busy lives, doing this as a hobby... they crumble and comply.

... And we lose just one more homesteading family to the urban whitewashing machine.

There is no rule that pre-empts your RIGHT TO FARM- locally, statewide or nationally...

Anyone that has a small structure (like the one pictured below) should not be THREATENED, or put in fear that they will be fined exorbitant amounts of money to farm goats, or any livestock.

It is our guaranteed RIGHT in our state statutes, and in our Palm Beach County Comprehensive Plan in the Exurban/Rural Tiers of the RSA (Rural Service Area) in Rural Residential parts of Unincorporated Palm Beach County. 

It is quite clear none of these ''buildings'' are permanent... NONE OF THEM. What they are - not pretty to the urban viewer. They house goats, chickens, and rabbits. Farming animals can be unsightly.

Animals, this week, a young girl is showing at our South Florida Fair.  we tout the farmer on one hand, lambast and embarrass, on the other.

Read below.  It's quite clear by the compliance deadline verbiage it is  meant to scare the homeowner into compliance. $1000 fine a day is nothing to sneeze at. C'mon people... really? Stop being fearful of this.... I know this is easier said then done. So, do they.... and it's why they write it. But you do need to be found 'guilty' and you have the right to be heard via magistrate. After that, you have the right to go to court and fight any fines ...before they can start slapping these fines on you.

This is a single mother, raising a daughter, alone. She is keeping her child busy, and honest, trying to bring her up in the most wholesome of ways -- Farming, breeding goats, homesteading, husbandry, with chickens and rabbits. I think its working. I've met a smart, cordial, helpful, and well rounded 15 year old when visiting.

This whole situation is just unconscionable to think about. This is our RIGHT to keep farm animals, (unincorporated loxahatchee and The Acreage areas). And its OUR RIGHT to house them as we see fit, with economical forethought. The whole point of these endeavors is to save money, not spend it to make the county happy.

YET, it becomes insurmountable, if one needs to constantly, pull permits, every time an addition is made to the fencing, the lean to's, temporary shelters, or pole barns. People should not have to get expensive engineering surveys done for a lean-to.

This is how farming is... and isn't .... Put up shelters, take them down. Move them around. And none of it should need to be 'permitted'... by the county. They do this to limit our endeavors and it needs to stop!

My last photo is the PPM written by the county zoning director about 8 years ago, when this was first addressed, when they were trying to limit our right to animals.... we thought it was final. It specifically states small sheds/lean to's and such did not need to be permitted if housing livestock..Nor did any cross fencing to keep them contained. As it happened, they lost the push to limit our right to animals. But instead seem to be coming at us from a different angle. Make it so difficult to build a small enclosure, or fence, or lean-to for them...

This mom works 2 full time jobs to keep above water... and raise her daughter out here...

We can do better Palm Beach County.

ps... I keep editing this page. As I remember items,  I've written about in the past. Below,  is one link to the Florida Building code that EXEMPTS farm buildings. While it has changed over the years, becoming more complicated, one thing still comes up... the word "OR" and that is where the interpretation comes into play. Read the bill. Past and Present. Another item to note is the ADDITION to Flood Plain Management to the statute. When researching this,  FEMA's manual is explicit in that a barn, within smaller sizes, CAN BE exempt from these requirements. Its our county that is ignoring this....

http://jojosfarmlife.blogspot.com/2012/07/farm-exempt-building-code.html