Questions & answers
Fair questions, answered plainly.
If you’re reading this skeptically, good. Here are the questions I’d ask too.
QIsn’t this just a property owner who’s upset about a code case?
I am one. But being upset is not the argument. The argument is that the county opened a case ordering me to prove buildings legal that its own 1962 records already counted, and could not produce the written rules those buildings would be judged by. That is a problem whether or not I am sympathetic, and the fixes I’m asking for would apply to everyone, not just me, and cost the county nothing.
QAre the buildings actually permitted or not?
That dispute has a proper forum, and the case is headed there. This site is not the place I relitigate it. What this site documents is narrower and, I think, more important: the county’s own permit from 1962 counted three other buildings already standing, and when I asked for the written standard the county uses to decide whether a building predates the permit requirement, the answer that came back was that no such record exists.
QWhat are you actually asking the county to do?
Four things, none of which costs a dollar it doesn’t already have: search and disclose its own records before ordering an owner to prove a building legal; have an independent review of how it keeps and preserves those records; put in writing how it treats buildings that predate its permit era; and apply the same standard to the same conditions whether or not someone complained. They’re laid out on The fix.
QAre you accusing the county of destroying evidence or acting in bad faith?
No. The county’s own IT tickets describe routine work and an ordinary backup failure, and I don’t claim anyone set out to lose anything. The problem doesn’t require bad intent. A county that wipes its own devices with no preservation hold during an active case, and then tells the property owner there’s no record of how the photographs were lost, has a records problem no single property dispute can fix. I’m describing what the documents say, not what anyone meant.
QWhy go public while the case is still open?
Because going public is the only pressure I can afford. I could not hire a land-use attorney, and the fight favors whoever can outlast the other’s money. Publishing turns a private file into a public record other people can check. My own case will resolve however it resolves; the point of the site is the pattern, not the verdict.
QWhat is HOME?
A small cooperative housing community on about eleven acres of foothill land outside Nevada City, running since 2019 — a place meant to be a home more than one household could afford. There’s more on About HOME.
QWho made this site, and was AI involved?
I did — Josh Wolf. Parts of it were organized and drafted with an AI assistant, under my direction and review, the same way I used that tool to work through the records. In a story that is partly about the disciplined use of that technology, I’d rather say so plainly than hide it. That’s the subject of one of the pieces here.
QHow do I check any of this for myself?
Please do. The county’s verbatim answers are itemized on The record, with reference numbers. The request-by-request document set and the county portals are in our receipts. Don’t take my word for it; the whole point is that you don’t have to.
QAre you asking for money?
No. There are no donation asks, no trackers, and no analytics on this site. I would rather fix this than fight, and I’d rather you check the record than trust me.
QWhat can I do?
If a code letter has come to you or someone you know, add your case — one parcel is an anecdote, fifty is a pattern. If you own property here, file a records request about it now, while it’s cheap and calm. And you can ask your Supervisor to put an independent records review on the Board’s agenda.
Still have a question?
If there’s something this didn’t answer, ask. I’d rather hear it.