City slaps widow with $60k in permit fees for simple home renovation

just to renovate my own home the city wants me to widen this road put in curbs gutters a couple of street lamps possibly sidewalks repaint the lines it's crazy I've lived in the tri-cities Richland Washington for about 46 years my husband Gary and I bought this house in the late 70s Gary passed away in 2012 from mesothelioma because he got exposed to asbestos in the Seattle shipyards at first I thought maybe I'd try to buy a new house but I always felt that I didn't want to leave here and then I got the idea why couldn't I just add on to my house and then I could be right where I want to be when Gary and I bought this house it had a carport and what they call an enclosed porch and now I just want to get rid of it and have another addition added in its place that would look nice and make the house bigger this house is a one-bedroom house one bathroom I've got one closet but somehow we managed to live in this house as small as it is I want a second bedroom because I don't even have a guest room another bathroom would be nice and the garage I hired a contractor I paid him five thousand to help me come up with some plans and everything was ready to go he had his whole crew ready the contractor submitted the plans to the city and was just waiting to get the approval on the permit but Public Works Department said wait wait you can't do it until you do road improvements on Fowler Street because this is over $50,000 worth of improvements on your property I was told by an engineer that it would cause $60,000 give or take 20% when I tell people what's going on and what the city wants me to do they always say what that's the city's job why are we paying our property taxes the city wants nice streets but they don't want to pay for it they did manage to put in a twenty million dollar City Hall this year though I can't afford to renovate my house and improve Fowler Street I'm joining with the Institute for justice to sue Richland because they're infringing on my rights as a property owner it's terrible that the city won't let me do what I want to do they're holding my property hostage [Music] you

Channel: Institute for Justice

Views: 562,477

Rating: 4.9257073 out of 5

Keywords: ij, institute for justice, richland, washington state, tricities

Id: Ett4WxSMa2M

Length: 3min 17sec (197 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/DonMarce]

What the actual fuck, is this America or china?

[u/thebrownwaterdog]

She said Washington, need not say more.