link-localThe Seattle man then spent thousands of dollars on interior remodeling, and for more than three years, his extended family and friends used the firehouse for holidays, celebrations, charity fundraisers, graduation parties and as an office until a Land Use Notice of Violation arrived in July of 2016.
According to the City of Seattle's violation letter, a "complaint about this property" had been received. A Housing and Zoning Inspector "investigated" and found "violations of the Seattle Land Use Code."
Kroon was ordered to "discontinue all unauthorized uses including but not limited to office and residence" because "the legally established use of the property is as a public facility (fire station.)"
“I thought it was sort of a joke when they said it’s still a fire station,” Kroon recently told KIRO 7. “I said, ‘Should I buy a truck?’ I mean seriously, this is just crazy! You sell a residential property and then you tell me it’s still a fire station?”
According to a civil lawsuit Kroon recently filed in King County Superior Court, the 2016 letter was "the first time the City had notified... the Kroon family that Fire Station 38 was not - as the City had represented - a residential dwelling."
Kroon was also sued by Seattle for alleged violations of city Municipal Code, for "using Fire Station 38 as something other than a fire station." According to Kroon, the City’s lawsuit against him was accruing penalties of $500 a day, for a total of “someplace around $400,000 in arrears,” he said.
ahhh govts, they can do whatever the hell they want, no matter how stupid, and have the cops to enforce it and the only way you can get right, is to pay for a lawyer, the only professional group worse than politicians to protect you and even then, you might not win.
