The article details the dispute between a Connecticut couple, Charles and Elizabeth Copley, and their town of Roxbury over the couple’s use of their privately-owned 50-acre rural property. After purchasing two plots of land in 2022, the Copleys developed hiking trails and began renting access to these trails via the Sniffspot app for a nominal fee of $10 per hour. This arrangement was intended to help maintain the trails and support the couple’s broader plans for farming and land stewardship on their property.

In April 2025, the Copleys received a letter from a zoning enforcement officer alleging that their operation constituted an unlicensed “dog park” business, citing a newly adopted ordinance regulating short-term rentals that inadvertently prohibited hourly rentals. Despite applying for a home enterprise license, the couple faced bureaucratic hurdles, including the requirement to merge their two separate plots under a single license, which would entail costly surveying and potentially diminish the property’s value and future development flexibility. The Institute for Justice (I.J.) has since intervened on the Copleys’ behalf, challenging the town to identify any specific ordinance that explicitly bans the couple from charging a fee for trail access, arguing that such use should be permitted as an accessory to their agricultural activities, which are already approved under the town’s zoning codes. The I.J. letter demands a response by September 30, threatening resumption of trail rentals on October 1 if the town does not clarify or rescind the alleged prohibition [https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/connecticut-couple-fighting-let-people-130001191.html].

This is a summary. Read the original at yahoo.com.