Path to Yurtizenship

[Dan R-M]

We were just assuming we'd put our yurt up on the old yurt's site, not worry too much about any official status, and fly under that radar. Then an attorney friend told us he was worrying for us, and wondered if we'd like him to do some brief research into was is legal in our locality and what repercussions might exist if we got caught not abiding by it. We said sure. And another friend, who works in the field of property tax assessment, told us that in our area aerial photos are taken with some regularity, and someone is sent to check out new construction.
When our friend got back to us on his findings, he said that in our area, and our zoning (Rural Estate) there was no clear way to put up a yurt. In fact, any new residential construction had to be a minimum of 3,000 sq. ft. (Our municipality is planning on all the current agricultural land "progressing" toward 20 acre parcels with big houses and a good tax base.) He listed the fines associated with noncompliance, with the note that often the municipality first tries to work with the offender to resolve the problem before it comes to fines.
Some folks we talked to said "Seriously. Nobody will notice, and nobody will care. Just put it up and move in. The absolute worst that will happen is that you'll have to take it down."
Others, though, gave us three good reasons not to proceed that way. The first is that our long-term plans involve creating a sustainable-living model for low impact living and farming. That will rely on good graces with the city planning and zoning folks. The second is that, in the medium term, we hope to incorporate natural building techniques in the renovation of the property's house. If we start out trying to do things under the radar, that could well create trust issues down the road on the house. And, finally, we are community-minded individuals, and (sometimes unfortunately) community includes our city's government.
So this thread is going to track our progress of trying to get permission in some way to put up our Pacific Yurt, which we hope to live in at least until our house is habitable (3+ years). Wish us luck!