Letter | Give me a break and a permit

I saw your piece on Mohave County cracking down on nuisance properties. They are also cracking down at least in my case on issuing building permits. I retired this year. I had purchased 37 acres in White Hills and planned to build my last home off the grid. After securing a permit I installed the septic tank. It was inspected and approved by the county. I get that. Very important. Can’t have people fouling the desert. I figured the worst was over. Boy, did I have that wrong. After taking my $540 deposit, I was sent on a three-week scavenger hunt for documents. Each time I gathered them I took them to the planning office. They were accepted each time. Three days in a row after dropping off additional documents, by the time I got home an email was waiting. The documents sent aren’t quite what they need. Since then they’ve obstructed me in every possible way. After almost a month of this they demand a solar power plan. This takes time and money. OK, I pay to have the plans done and last night I receive word that the county has decided that I can’t heat my 1,100-square-foot off-grid house with a wood stove and insisted my draftsman add three air conditioning and heating units, one for each room, thereby completely rendering my solar plan useless and getting me no closer to the building permit that in my view they have no intention of ever granting me. I could go on and on.

Carson Smith

White Hills