This is about our adventures in dividing a 5 acre lot into two 2.5 acre lots, in San Bernardino County in southern California. It will include human folly, financial folly, governmental folly, economic folly, and environmental folly. Plenty of folly to go around.
My family and I live on the south half of the 5 acre lot. The lot is defined as “sub-dividable” by the county. We bought it 6 years ago, had a house built on it, assuming that we could subdivide it when we chose, and either sell the other half, or build on the other half, then sell it.
You know what they say about assumptions.
We moved into the house a little more than 4 years ago. As you may recall, the go-go real estate market was in full swing. When we began to check into it, we discovered that the cost to subdivide the property into two separate lots was estimated at $14,000 – $15,000. Wow. Who knew? We asked why, and were told about all the things that “had to be done” before the lot could be divided.
“But,” we protested, “we just bought the lot, and built on it. Environmental studies were already done. Drainage has been determined. Percolation tests have been done.” (Those are necessary to determine that the ground will tolerate a septic tank, since it’s a pretty remote area.) We continued, “And the survey was just done to determine the exact limits of the property before we were allowed to buy it. All you have to do is draw a line down the middle of it. Nothing has changed in the last six years.”
The county employee smiled condescendingly and explained that it all had to be done again. I asked why, and was told, “It’s the state law for part of it, and county regulations for the rest of it.” Did I mention that it was going to be $14,000 – $15,000 to get all this stuff done again?
Basically, we were staying in Judah, and wanted to sell Israel. Unfortunately, the Assyrians run the county, and the Babylonians run the state. We could wait for Sharia Law to take over, and pay the jizya, or we could just bite the bullet and pay tribute now.
