09-09-2009, 08:43 AM
>>>There is nothing to debate, the code is in black and white.
LOL, nothing is black and white in the land of selective enforcement and interpretation.
I have been told that people can camp on their own land, but that was six years ago so I can't say if that is current policy.
Totally not true about calling the county. A citizen is not expected to pull the code and they are there to answer questions. When they give you a permit they give you a printout attached that has a list of what is code, and no doubt if you were to call for every detail instead of consulting the sheet they gave you, they would get irritated, but this is a different kind of question.
If they WANTED to enforce against tent camping on private property, which I don't think they do, I can see a way to argue it. The umbrella language over all the code you cited is that no person shall erect a structure without a permit. They then make a list of exceptions, which states that a tent can be erected under a temporary permit for certain purposes. The fact that they have an exception for tents indicates that a tent is considered a structure; if not, they would not need to make an exception for certain uses or mention tents (or mobile structures) at all. They then clarify that getting a temp permit is not a way to get around the rule that structures shall not be erected without a permit:
No tent of canvas, plastic, or similar material shall be used for residence purposes.
While that line pertains immediately to tents erected under the temp permit exception, it also reinforces the intent of the dominant clause.
However, I do not think that a pup tent or other simple camping tent that can be folded up in five minutes would in any way be called an erected structure. If a large tent were erected and used as a residence, I absolutely think that they could argue the code prohibits it. Look at the language - "erected." That implies a certain size. People don't "erect" pup tents and tiny dome tents. They set them up. A tent of size that allows walking around, and so forth, would have more engineering, more bones to it, and could be said to be "erected."
LOL, nothing is black and white in the land of selective enforcement and interpretation.
I have been told that people can camp on their own land, but that was six years ago so I can't say if that is current policy.
Totally not true about calling the county. A citizen is not expected to pull the code and they are there to answer questions. When they give you a permit they give you a printout attached that has a list of what is code, and no doubt if you were to call for every detail instead of consulting the sheet they gave you, they would get irritated, but this is a different kind of question.
If they WANTED to enforce against tent camping on private property, which I don't think they do, I can see a way to argue it. The umbrella language over all the code you cited is that no person shall erect a structure without a permit. They then make a list of exceptions, which states that a tent can be erected under a temporary permit for certain purposes. The fact that they have an exception for tents indicates that a tent is considered a structure; if not, they would not need to make an exception for certain uses or mention tents (or mobile structures) at all. They then clarify that getting a temp permit is not a way to get around the rule that structures shall not be erected without a permit:
No tent of canvas, plastic, or similar material shall be used for residence purposes.
While that line pertains immediately to tents erected under the temp permit exception, it also reinforces the intent of the dominant clause.
However, I do not think that a pup tent or other simple camping tent that can be folded up in five minutes would in any way be called an erected structure. If a large tent were erected and used as a residence, I absolutely think that they could argue the code prohibits it. Look at the language - "erected." That implies a certain size. People don't "erect" pup tents and tiny dome tents. They set them up. A tent of size that allows walking around, and so forth, would have more engineering, more bones to it, and could be said to be "erected."