Charles and Eli Copley bought 50 acres of rural land in Roxbury, Connecticut, hoping to build a working farm — planting nut trees, managing forest health, and making the property their own. They hired a forester to draw up a 10-year forest management plan, which the town approved, and spent time clearing invasive species and cutting miles of walking trails across the property. To keep those trails maintained without doing all the work themselves, the Copleys turned to Sniffspot, an Airbnb-style app that lets landowners rent out their property by the hour to hikers and dog walkers. They charged just $10 an hour — enough to offset maintenance costs, while giving them control over who came onto their land and when. It worked well for months. Then, in April 2025, the town sent them a "Possible Notice of Violation," suggesting they were illegally operating a "dog park" and citing home-based business regulations — without ever identifying an actual ordinance the Copleys had broken. Sixteen months of back-and-forth with state regulators, the Roxbury Inland Wetlands Commission, and the town's zoning board went nowhere. This week, the Copleys' attorneys at the Institute for Justice sent Roxbury a formal letter demanding the town either explain what law prohibits hikers on private land or allow the Copleys to resume the practice — warning that they'll reopen the trails on October 1 regardless, and see the town in court if it objects.
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| Photo from IJ article |
Commentary: Not every case of government overreach involves a battering ram or a bullet — sometimes it's just a town quietly grinding a family down for sixteen months over hikers on their own dirt, refusing the whole time to say what rule they're even breaking.
Source: https://ctmirror.org/2026/08/27/roxbury-trails-zoning-rules/
AI disclosure: ⚠️ This content was researched and written with AI assistance and may be fully AI-generated. All facts are sourced from the linked article and corroborating sources.
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