We've thought of moving from here lots...I was curious...does anyone here in the forum live in the Kansas City area? We'd be superclose to some family there (Marty's Mom) and these small towns are really hard to make friends, settle,etc. Larger areas have more diversity in folks and the "fluidity" (I hope I'm using the right word) seems to make folks more friendly to "newcomers". We would, of course, be interested in small (1-3) acreage(goats...chickens...garden!)

-- Beth Weber (talmidim88@hotmail.com), November 17, 2000

Answers

Hi Beth. We lived in Holt Mo '89-93, in northern Clay Co. We were 25 miles north of Kansas City. You will never convince me the county wasn't named for the quality of the soil!Other than that it was really nice. There were two groups of people, the long timers and the newbies but once you joined in, didn't make yourself an outsider, you were pretty well accepted. Unfortunately, land prices are going sky high in that area because we had easy access to I-35 and the city and Clay Co. is regulated to the gills. Most subdivisions have covenants about what you can and can't do with your property. You can have 12 horses on 3 acres but no chickens and nothing with cloven hooves. We were fortunate to have enough land that we weren't bothered by the regs and the people who bought our place have more and more diverse livestock than we did. The two pastures adjoining our place now have homes built on them. I'm guessing that neighbor complaints and trespassing which was already becoming a problem when we were still there would force someone out of business just on the aggrevation and liability alone.

Please feel free to email me directly and if I don't know about a specific area, I can find out for you, possibly putting you in contact with people still there.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), November 18, 2000.

Beth, Johnson County Missouri is the only county, close to KC, without zonning regulations. NOTE: Johnson County Missouri. The zonning issue has gone to the polls 3 times in 12 years and defeated each time. But, if one throws enough mud against the wall it begins to stick.

In Johnson County Kansas, you can not hang out the wash or have plastic flowers in the yard. It is a mess.

Clay county MO is really nice and I almost purchase a Holt Mini Ranch. But, The regulations were too too much for any freedoms.

JR

-- JR (jr3star@earthlink.net), November 19, 2000.