. $8,000 seems high to me, but A) I don't know the entire scope, B) I don't know what was agreed to before hand, and C) as a former boss of mine used to say, you can't put the s*** back in the horse.

The other way around really is putting the cart before the horse, which I've seen plenty of times before and I've seen people lose as much as $5k EMD because of it.

I might have put the cart before the horse by posting on this so far in advanced, but the way I see it is that the more you know about the problems you might run into the better it is to avoid those problems in the future. 

As with any such questions that are in essence asking for legal advice, you should either consult an a lawyer or, in this case, how about simply calling the city to get it from the horse's mouth?

What currently pays the bills is being a Jockey Agent in the horse racing business.

Don't disclose your might sell the property you don't choke a gift horse, and better not to plan against a parents potential gift.

Get off your high horse dude.   

The following is copied from disabilitylawco.org.First, although the ADA and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) implementing regulations have limited a “service animal” to a specially trained dog (or in some instances a miniature horse), those limitations do not apply to the Fair Housing Act (FHA) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 – the federal laws that apply to housing.It means that people with disabilities may request a reasonable accommodation to allow an emotional support animal to live with them even if their housing has restrictions or prohibitions on pets.The issue then becomes whether the person with a disability needs the animal in order to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the housing or housing program.

Get it straight from the horse's mouth.  

You could have a ranch with horses, or a palace with an inground pool.