mk e wrote:
Finally back to the shop planning. I got the zoning variance paperwork yesterday and plan to have it ready to drop off Monday...then it's 30 days for an answer I think.
So I dropped the zoning permit paperwork of yesterday. When I started digging through the paper work and the ordince to site the correct sections for the variance I decided the zoning office was full of shit and I don't need a variance at all. I asked for clarification last thurday pointing to the specific sections I thought applied and she has gone silenent since.....so I submitted the applicaiton the way I think it should be before the town has time to change anything.
The best I can tell when the farm field was subdivied back around 2001 for the development the town moved it from R-1 to R-2 which allowed more lots but with bigger setbacks than if they left it R-1. The houses got built, the plans on file list R-2 and show a 50 foot side yard setback as specified by R-2 so that is what the zoning officer told me. But then the town re-authorized the zoning ordinace in 2010, and published the zoning map without adding the change that put my development in R-2.....so the current map shows me squarely in R-1 and that means 30 foot side yard not 50 foot and no variance required to build a decent size garage. The ordinance is clear that the offical signed map is the one and ONLY source of zone location information and the only way to change it is to approve and publish a revised map.
We'll see how the fight goes but I'm way happier arguing they need to follow the ordinace to the letter than trying to argue I should be given an exception from the ordinace.
The plan at the moment is 3 car 28x32 at the end of the driveway and I'm negotiating with lana that it should have 2nd floor space. I listed the height at 30 feet on the zoning applicaiton so I'll be able to go as tall as I could ever need for a 12/12 or barn(gambrel roof) to make space up there. This keeps it 2 foot from the setback line so I don't need to get anyhting surveyed to stay out of trouble, keeps the garage off my geothermal field that starts about 29-30 feet from the end of the driveway, and 10 feet from the house for fire, technically becasue my house is stucco with 6" walls I could go 4-5 foot spacing and go 36 foot on the garage but it will look better and Lana will feel safer with the standard 10 foot spacing.
fingers crossed on the zoning fight.....