By Free Republic | Created at 2024-09-27 04:54:46 | Updated at 2024-09-30 23:33:10
3 days ago
Georgia carpenter 'stripped of his dignity' by cruel officials who demolished his house without any warning
Daily Mail ^
Posted on 09/26/2024 9:14:30 PM PDT by algore
A skilled carpenter's Georgia home was unexpectedly demolished without any notice or compensation from the county.
Eric Arnold, from New Jersey, decided to pack up and move to Georgia to live where his mother grew up. He took on multiple home renovation projects, including the property in Macon-Bibb County.
He bought the house in 2022 for $15,000 and started improving it to make it a future home for his children and grandchildren.
But his plans were shattered when a neighbor called Arnold to ask about a dumpster that had been place on his property.
After two months of confusion and mixed signals from country officials, Arnold's home was demolished on November 15, 2023.
He filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging that his home's destruction was unconstitutional.
He told the Institute for Justice: 'When you knock something down like that and destroy families, he just destroyed my whole generation. Now I have nothing.
When I pulled up and saw the house demolished, I was devastated. My heart started racing, I was tearing up, I started sweating.'
Macon-Bibb county has a blight problem, but instead of working with community residents toward a solution or communicating their plans, they simply resort to knocking down houses.
Blighted properties are those seen as a disruption to the surrounding area, according to the Center for Community Progress.
Arnold argued that he was in the process of fixing the home. He had completely transformed it from its original state.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: hhgg
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
But Mr. Arnold, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”
“Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display…”
“Ah! And how many members of the public are in the habit of casually dropping around the local planning office on an evening?”
“Er – ah.”
“It’s not exactly a noted social venue is it? And even if you had popped in on the off chance that some raving bureaucrat wanted to knock your house down, the plans weren’t immediately obvious to the eye, were they?”
“That depends where you were looking.”
“I eventually had to go down to the cellar!”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
"Yes, yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard". Have you considered going into advertising?"
1 posted on 09/26/2024 9:14:30 PM PDT by algore
To: algore
Georgia is changing into something ugly.
2 posted on 09/26/2024 9:18:36 PM PDT by Lazamataz (If you are upset the bullet missed, contact me immediately. I'll make sure your bullet doesn't.)
To: Lazamataz
And who do we have to thank for this?! Hippie commies transplanted from the coasts.
3 posted on 09/26/2024 9:22:21 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
To: Lazamataz
Yes it is ugly hatelfulness. The people who get jobs in zoning are petty, controlling gaulieters.
This man was renovating his home. How hard would it have been to talk to him before commiting such a heinous act?
4 posted on 09/26/2024 9:35:36 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and His mercy endureth forever. -- Psalm 106)
To: algore
Blighted properties are those seen as a disruption to the surrounding area, according to the Center for Community Progress.
Nope. Blighted properties are seen as a way to develop special taxing districts that are passed out like favors to the friends of local politicians. New development replaces the blighted ones but the tax rate is much lower than it would usually be for the type of occupancy. There are often conditions such as a certain percentage of local employment for workers and set aside for so called affordable units.
There is a code called the “Unsafe building and abatement code” (The name may have changed) but there are definite steps that have to take place before an unsafe building is either torn down or brought to code. Throughout the process an owner has legal rights and avenues of appeal.
Someone got very greedy and figured the owner would not have the means to fight them.
5 posted on 09/26/2024 9:49:09 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
To: algore
I hope Arnold sues the socks off the county.
6 posted on 09/26/2024 9:50:02 PM PDT by jonrick46
To: algore
I want to see the demographics of the parties involved. Being a Georgian government bureaucracy....well. I just wonder.
7 posted on 09/26/2024 9:52:01 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
To: Lazamataz
US bureaucracies used to be stupid, slow and wasteful. But they rarely were actually malicious.
That has changed in the past 30 years I think. First slowly and now more quickly.
8 posted on 09/26/2024 9:53:01 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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