A developer set out to spite his neighbours with a 10ft-wide house after they fought "tooth and nail" against plans to build on one of the few remaining plots in the area.
Builders went to great lengths to develop the skinny home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida under strict zone laws.
The row erupted when Ryan Wetherhold, owner of Oceanside Real Estate bought the 25ft-wide lot from another developer in 2021.
Wetherhold and builder John Atkins hoped that building codes would slacken to allow for a more standard-sized house.
A developer set out to spite his neighbours with a 10ft-wide house after they fought "tooth and nail" against plans
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However, the developer said the "entire neighbourhood" came out to "talk against it".
"It got passed down from homeowner to homeowner — 'that lot will never be built on … we’ll have this nice buffer between our house and the next house and will always have a place where I can take my dog to the bathroom, I can do my gardening in there'," he told The Times.
Wetherhold said the pushback encouraged himself and Atkins to construct a legal building.
"We wouldn’t have been down this path had there been a bit more back and forth," Wetherhold said.
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"When people say, 'You can’t do it, you can’t do it', [Atkins] is like, 'I’m going to do it in spite of you telling me I can’t do it'."
Despite a number of logistical issues, the pair created a liveable home in the narrow space which is on sale for $619,000.
With soaring house prices and huge demand in Florida, Wetherhold said all available space should be taken advantage of.
He said: "The demand has been as high as it’s ever been since I’ve been doing this in 22 years, so you have to get creative to figure out how to accommodate all these people."
Despite a number of logistical issues, the pair created a liveable home in the narrow space which is on sale for $619,000
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He added that he could have been more spiteful with a "multiple-storey" property.
"You can do short-term rentals. You can do one-night rentals. It could have been a transient vacation rental property, which is not popular with the locals," he said.
The developer said the neighbours now "love" the structure as it's "an eye-catcher".
