Let's say you buy a piece of vacant land with the intent of developing it into a golf community only to have that plan rendered inactionable by a geological survey showing the reason it's remained vacant is because much of the acreage is too unstable to build on. Would you A) call the condemned acreage a loss and take the tax write-off or B) waste seven years and buttloads of $$$ on lawyers trying to make City Hall give you an exception it can't lawfully provide?
