Platte County Building Permits: Fill & Download for Free

I get it that people in the eastern United States do not understand how complex water rights issues are. I went to Law School at NYU where the average LSAT score gets people admitted to MENSA and I pulled my hair out trying to explain to those geniuses the west’s environmental issues.Mr. Harrington built dams within the Butte Creek Watershed. Medford, Oregon owns the water in that watershed pursuant to statute. Water from that watershed percolates through the volcanic soil and emerges at Butte Springs. Mr. Harrington was jailed, according to what I can figure out, three times. Once for 30 days for breaking the law, once for 12 days for contempt of court because he walked out of a courtroom during sentencing, and once for 90 days for breaking the law again.Gary Harrington started damming streams around 1975 (CNS article cited below) and after complaints, in 2002 he applied for permits which were first granted and then denied. In 2003 they started citing him. On May 13, 2004, he filed trial court case number 041750Z3, in which he sought judicial review of a letter and an order requiring the department to issue final orders on his request for reconsideration. On May 28, 2004, the very litigious Gary Harrington filed another lawsuit, trial court case number 041960Z0, in which he petitioned for judicial review of the final orders. In 2007 the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court, ruling that Mr. Harrington had not raised his issue of “diffuse surface waters” in a timely manner. Mr. Harrington was represented at the Court of Appeals by a Portland lawyer who holds herself out as quite the authority on Water Use issues, presumably he hired her after he started and not soon enough to timely raise the “diffuse water” arguments. I assume that is where he spent the $200,000 his supporter claims he spent on lawyers, along with the lawyer who registered his limited liability companies.Mr. Harrington pleaded guilty in 2007 or 2008 (the reports vary) and agreed to probation, and got jailed in 2013 after 6 years of continuing to do what he agreed to stop doing. He had his day in court many times over, even trying his case to an impartial jury (according to the Mail-Tribune cited below) that convicted him. He is a "criminal" like all the other " criminals" people talk about on Quora.He insisted the water was all rain water and snow melt but the state argued, and the Court found, that he built three dams, two of them 10 feet high and the third 20 feet high, on streams and made three ponds with 40 acre feet of water (20 Olympic swimming pools) out of water that was the rightful property of Medford, Oregon. Then he tried to create a legal entity that would shield him from liability for stealing Medford’s water. He claims to have given up all interest in the land and that he is only a caretaker. Public records I found on the web sites of Jackson County Tax Assessor and the Oregon Secretary of State show Mr. Harrington is a trustee, along with Valerie Harrington, Cynthia Harrington, and Michael Harrington, of the “Harrington Family Revocable Trust” which owns several adjacent properties on Crowfoot Road in Eagle Point, Oregon - street numbers 1551, 1677, 1876, 1900, and 2030. http://web.jacksoncounty.org/pdo/ Mr. Harrington is the manager of five limited liability companies, all listed at the 1876 Crowfoot address, and all listed as “Rental Properties” in the pdfs linked on the site: Ardmore, LLC, CCL, LLC, New Haley, LLC, Old Haley, LLC, and Platt, LLC. Business Registry Associated Business Search. I am pretty confident that those lakes on the properties made the rentals quite valuable. The trial court told Mr. Harrington he thought the transfer of interest was a sham: “Mejia said Harrington's actions to quit claiming the property's title was done solely to avoid the legal consequences of his criminal acts. He lives on the property. He controls the property. It's a sham," The Judge said to Mr. Harrington “I'm not saying you're a horrible, bad man. But I find you have been dishonest with the court.” Medford Mail Tribune article cited below.Medford is the 8th largest city in the state by population. Oregon is the 9th largest state in the United States of America by area. We’re over twice the size of Pennsylvania. Water is in short supply in most of the state, Medford is a hot, dry, arid place. Water evaporates from ponds. Building a dam on a stream and diverting a city’s water supply is going to make you public enemy #1. Try taking 20 olympic swimming pools of water from New York City’s supply by diverting a stream in the Catskills.That guy played the victim and he’s got about 30 friends in the world, the people rowing boats around his fish pond thumbing their noses at the hundreds of thousands of people downstream who have rights to that water.30 days and $1,500? Should have been daily fines until he fixed it.Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail -- for Collecting Rainwater on His Property (the conservative version)FindLaw's Court of Appeals of Oregon case and opinions. (Oregon Court of Appeals recitation of the facts and the law and affirming the denial of his permits)Jackson County man sentenced for illegal water diversion, ordered to breach dams (The Oregonians version)Man jailed for illegal water Medford Mail Tribune version. I subscribed for a year. That paper is conservative.EDIT: After a couple comments on this answer I think it might help if I clarify that the water in question was property of the City of Medford, not the State of Oregon. Also, as the Court of Appeals case cited, ORS 538.430 (click here to see it 2017 Oregon Revised Statutes) granted water rights in the Butte Creek Watershed to Medford and to the Eagle Point irrigation district. Here is a map:That watershed is only about 245 square miles, less than a tenth of Jackson County’s 2,802 square miles. 2,557 square miles of the County is not regulated by the statute. Only 44% of the watershed is owned by private citizens; 56% is federal land. So the law that affected him only affects 107.8 square miles of private land. Mr. Harrington and his supporters like to argue that what happened to him could happen to anyone. The law that affected him affects only the landowners in a small part of a county that is larger than Delaware.Big Butte CreekJackson County, Oregon - Wikipedia

In Florida there are three kinds of municipal authorities: Private for Profit Corporations, Unincorporated Townships, or County Municipalities.Corporate entities are incorporated under Corporate Contract Law, and have Statutory Authority from the State.Unincorporated Townships exist under Legal State Law.County Municipalities are under Lawful State Law (id est you are treated as a citizen not as a shareholder or lessee of a private corporation).In Florida most municipalities are organized under a corporate charter. They have statutory authority, as established by the State, to tax and fine, in order to get the revenue they need to operate and discharge contractual obligations like salaries and pensions. Police Departments are not “State Agents” but rather corporate employees with statutory authority.They have no power to deprive you of your liberty or property. They can hold you for the time necessary for a State district attorney to charge you, and turn you over to a County holding facility. That is why they cannot enforce Court Decisions. Only the County or State has the authority to do so. If you don't pay rent, and the Court orders you out, only the County Sherif can execute a forcible removal.Counties have lawful authority. The County Sheriff has the authority normally assumed to belong to the “state”.Counties get their lawful authority from the State.The State gets its lawful authority from the Constitution. What is not positively affirmed to be a Federal Constitutional Power, is by default the Power of the State. The State gets its authority from the same source as the Federal Government, namely the Citizen, or as the Constitution puts it, “from the People”.An unincorporated township or municipality is not organized as a private for profit corporation. Its a simple municipality where the citizens elect a board to take care of business. Its a legal entity subject to municipality State law, ie legal authority, as opposed to corporate law. It can set up its own police force and fire brigade, but mostly depends on the services of the County Commission to provide most of the services expected.Only the County Commissioner has Lawful Authority.An example: Miami-Dade County has most of the authority, but individual areas within Miami-Dade are organized in all manner of ways. There are 33 incorporated areas within the county. South Miami is un-incorporated, Coral Gables is incorporated, and the City of Miami is a municipality. South Beach is incorporated separately as a private corporation.Star Island on Biscayne Bay is a private island, with less than 34 houses, run as a private corporation (incorporated municipality). It has its own police force, but they act more like a concierge service. They will even take out your garbage if you cleaning lady is late…Everything You Need to Know About Indian Creek Island, Miami's Most Exclusive EnclaveInside Miami’s fantasy islandsThe real advantage of living in a privately owned incorporated municipality is that you are not subject to a highly politicized and corrupt Planning Commission. In Coral Gables, The City Beautiful, six miles south of downtown Miami, it takes on average 18 months to get a building permit, and that’s with the use of a “code facilitator”. Anything over $80 in cost, requires a permit. It was incorporated in the 1920’s, and has gone bankrupt more than once. Exceptionally good police force, its so secure that they don't even need to have street lights. You cannot park a pick up truck or van on any property, regardless. They will remove a dead possum within thirty minutes of you calling the Sanitation Department. Only re-inforced concrete and cinderblock construction is allowed, so its hurricane proof. So its all good until you decide to put in a new bathroom, and the three year ordeal begins. Just because you got a permit, does not mean you will pass inspection. You can still buy houses built in the 1920’s with only one bathroom because you cannot get a permit for a second one.By comparison, in Sarasota FL, you get a building permit within two weeks, and you do not even need an architect to file it. Your plumber can file the permit if he is certified by the State.Average cost of construction in Sarasota, is $80 per square foot, $600–800 in the right neighborhood in Miami-Dade.Hurricanes are not the problem, its the 8–12 feet storm surge you need to worry about.There is no statutory obligation for private municipal corporations to provide public skools, or hospitals. This can result in substantially lower income taxes. Consequently, you can make private arrangements such as for private hospitals and private skools.Some private municipalities forbid all children from living in the township, and some have even extended it to anybody under the age of 55. You have to apply for a permit for your grand children to stay overnight.Neither the County, the State or the Federal Government is responsible for the debts of a private corporation. Pension funds are either funded from property taxes and or fines or they are not.Most roads in Florida have three to four names. They have the incorporated township’s name, the County name, the State name and some the Federal Name. US_1, and Interstate 95, that run from Key West Florida to Maine are Federal roadways. You also have a hybrid authority called a County Line Road, that is subject to more than one County, and occasionally is also a State Road. So it might have two different county names depending on the direction of traffic, and a State name.Local pre 1920’s roads can be deemed “northbound” or “southbound” even though they run east to west. Alligator Alley, portions of Dixie Highway which are also US-1, conform to this nomenclature. Some cities like Miami-Dade County are organized in quadrants NE, NW, SW and SE. So notice the “N” or “S” before entering an address. Some large municipalities like Doral FL were only incorporated recently. So recently in fact that your insurance agent might not even find the property on the national platt database. I set up a logistical warehouse ten years ago for South America shipments and my NY broker informed me that the insurer in St Paul Minnesota told him “according to our database the warehouse is three feet under water in the middle of a swamp and we cannot insure it…”Do not assume anybody has jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is too recent to be established conclusively.In addition to which the Intercostal Waterway, that runs from Texas to Maine is also considered a Federal road. It has an absolute Right of Way under Federal Law. A thirty foot sailboat has the right of way over any road traffic regardless of volume or time. Even I-95 is lower in the pecking order.For the purposes of this post, if the land or submerged land is part of or provides access to the Intercostal highway, you better steer clear. The US Army (specifically the US Army Corp of Engineers) is the only government agency with legal authority. If you interfere with their right of way, they can remove any impediment to navigation without even having to seek a court order. I once saw them remove a broken down power boat with a back hoe.So to answer your question, find an unincorporated plot of land you own entirely, incorporate it under corporate law as a municipality so you get statutory authority, and call it what you want.If you want to create an incorporated private island, its going to be trickier, because in the early 2000’s the State started making the claim that it owns the land under the water. For example you will have to buy the land from the State if your boat dock extends more than 12 inches from your “land property”. I have sailed extensively in FL waters, and every sailing club that did not purchase the water rights is now faced with either maintaining the existing dock under “grand father rules” or being forced to buy the submerged land rights adjacent to their property rights.Inland its a little more complicated because all the tree huggers want the swamps preserved. Once environmental laws are observed its hard business. You can “induce” your local municipal councillor to rezone, but its hard to get the State to move on that, or better, it takes a whole team of “facilitators” to do so.On the other hand most inland undeveloped non submerged virgin land is privately owned and can be purchased. If the US Army Corp of Engineers in the 30’s seeded the land with Australian Pine Trees, you can build on it. That is how the Federal Government established their claim on “dry land”.Virgin plots are land that have never ever been developed before. Buy a plot, get the plat established as a privately owned incorporated municipality and you are in business.Some finer points about Florida.Until the invention of air conditioning in the 1930’s, Florida was uninhabitable. The local Indigenous Peoples never signed a Peace Treaty with the United States of America, because the Cavalry is useless in a mangrove swamp. Local Chiefs are not subject to US jurisdiction, don't mess with them, they can shoot you and get away with it.North Florida is in the Southern United States, South Florida is not part of the South. The West Coast is the Red Neck Riviera, the East Coast is mostly inhabited by New Englanders. The University of Southern Florida is in the middle of the State. If you see a State Trooper, squeeze your butt cheeks.A good lawyer and can of grease will get you where you need to be in Florida. Make sure you know who the local potentate is.That’s all I got, thanks for the ask, always a pleasure.

To find out the distance from the property line to where you can place a shed; I would recommend contacting your property and zoning department in your city or county. You might want to also find your property markers. I keep several copies of my property’s platt on hand.I know that there is a 25 ft. Easement on my boundary with the public street. In my case the boundaries for installing an out building between individual properties is much less. A couple of years ago; we had to obtain a permit to install a shed on our property. This might not be the case in your hometown.I strongly recommend talking to the planners in your area. I know of several people who thought they could get away installing a shed without a permit. They ended up having to tear down their shed.