After I got the council’s approval letter to divide my land into 250 plots last week, things have been strange. The council still seems to want to control what we do, but when I went to the national cadaster’s office, they told me this council has no authority over what I can build.
Apparently, the council can’t dictate our work! They didn’t care about the approval letter that took so much effort to get. They said there’s no rule in that village requiring permission to do anything on private land. This lack of regulation has led to a lot of misuse, like the absence of green spaces and public beach access, with lakefront properties being sold to private owners by corrupt officials.
The council might be worried that after splitting the land, we’ll sell plots to people who will then demand electricity and water from the council, which would be costly for them. But they can’t stop us, only pretend they can. We informed them of our plans at the end of April and have only heard rumors in return—that the mayor and his counselors were meeting about us weekly, but we never got any official details. I requested a meeting with the mayor, but since the mayor’s secretary is my old handyman’s sister, I doubt the message got through.
The director of public works, who helped me get the approval letter, suggested we provide an environmental study to see our impact on the land. The architect quoted $3,000 for this study, and even the director admitted the mayor wouldn’t read it but would keep it for potential future use if environmental concerns arise.
I suggested digging a well, which would cost us around $50,000, and offering it to the council for free in exchange for them handling its administration and maintenance. The director was interested at first since the well would supply water to a third of the village that currently has water only for a few hours a day. Then he came back with additional fees and technical requirements. He also wanted a huge water tower instead of an underground tank, which contradicted his earlier environmental concerns.
It seems he didn’t understand that we’re not legally obligated to provide a well. We can wait and see if the buyers pressure the mayor enough to offer them water. For now, we plan to either buy water from a neighboring friend or build a small rainwater tank instead of digging deeply and paying the well fee.
We also offered to provide a football field for free in exchange for its maintenance, but now there are rumors that one counselor intends to sell land to the council at a profit for the field. This same counselor previously sold public beach land unlawfully. Our workers are excited about the field, so we’ve sent them to remind the mayor that the costs would be the same either way, except our land is free.
The architect initially agreed to create individual maps for 260 plots for $3,000, but he wasn’t certified by the cadaster. We reduced his work to 100 plots, agreeing to share his fee with a certified person to sign off the maps. He raised his rate by $750, which we accepted, but only if any errors would be his responsibility to fix. He quit the next day, saying he was offended. However, I quickly hired someone else who agreed to the same terms and will start this week.
On the home front, things are mostly fine, except the new handyman’s girlfriend, who occasionally helped clean, hurt her foot and claimed she couldn’t work anymore. We saw her around the village, though, and my boyfriend suspects I overworked her. I didn’t want a maid in the first place, so it’s not a big deal.
The animals are slowly recovering from a month of food deprivation while we were away, but we’re still losing some. I’m getting advice from local women; keeping chicks indoors for two weeks seems to be essential to prevent leg infections. We need to build a nursery for them.
When you carefully create 12 nests for your birds, they still cramp together in one. Such is life! How are things going in your area?