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Planning
Designing
City Hall
Financing
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City Hall
Permits:
Take a good look...
it seems like it would be easy to get one. You're a tax payer... right?
Just go down to city hall and fill out the necessary paper work and in a
week or two you have a building permit you can ceremoniously nail to the
side of your house. Guess again. To obtain a building permit, bring in a
legal description and survey of the property showing what you would like
to build and indicate all setbacks (see below). That sounds easy. It may
be... or, as in our case, it may take four months. We had everything going
on: no survey on record, required a variance and our property abutted
wetlands. The good news was we finally got the permit, the bad news was it
took so long and cost an extra few hundred dollars.
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Survey:
You
will need an A2 survey of your property. The town may have one on record. Go
down to the town hall and ask to see "your file". This is a collection
of stuff compiled over the years regarding your property. Even if you just
bought your house, the file may be three inches thick. If there is not a recent
A2 survey of the property on record you will need one. Ours cost us $600 but we
got quotes of up to $1,200. From what I was told buy a friend who is a surveyor
an A2 survey is an A2 survey. $1,200 doesn't buy you any more than a $600. As
long as the guy / company is licensed the town will accept it. I'm sure people
in this business will argue this point but for a simple addition I would go with
the cheapest.
Setbacks:
Any
idea what these things are? They basically mean you can't do
anything you want with every square inch of your property. Setbacks vary from
town to town and according to which way you go and how your lot is set up. There is generally a
front setback measured from either the center or edge of the roadway to the
nearest edge of your house. There are side and rear setbacks measured from your property line.
These may all be the same or different. Check with the town hall. What can you
build within these setbacks? Nothing... unless you get a variance (see below).
Why have them? Unless they hinder your project they make sense. You don't want
your neighbor building a shed that is six inches from your property line and
then starts leaning old junk up against the back wall. We needed a variance
because while our basic design went up, one corner went out to a point which was
73' from the center of the road. Our setback for this location is 75' to the
center of the road. OK, so what's two feet you may ask? It might as well be 20
feet. The town doesn't care if it is 2 inches. We needed a variance.
Variance:
So
what is hardship? There are many ways you can define the word. I think of losing
my job, can't find work, losing the house,... That may be hardship but not the
kind the town cares about. To get a variance you have to present your case
before the zoning board and plead hardship. So we were thinking we need another
bathroom and if you are in our house while we all try to get ready in the
morning that has got to qualify for hardship. Wrong. This is a really fine line
you have to walk. We were actually coached a little at our pre hearing as to
what we needed to present. We had a carport on our house that was in bad shape.
It was basically falling down and if it did it would take our roof with it. To
rebuild it would have cost as much as putting on an entire garage so we would be
foolish to rebuild a carport when we could get a garage. We didn't have the
money to build either so we needed a bank loan. No bank would loan us the money
to build a carport when we could get a garage for nearly the same cost. Another
problem was the carport was not large enough to be replaced by a garage so we
had to go out a little... hence the need for a variance. But what about the
second floor and the bathroom? Forget about it. When presenting your case (you
actually do sit before 6 or so people and give a presentation) stick to only the
reason for the variance. Don't drift off onto anything else that isn't relevant.
Also be aware that prior to your meeting you have to send letters to all
neighbors whose property abuts yours stating your intention of getting a
variance. Needless to say if you are on bad terms with any of them they can show
up at your hearing and make a stink.
Wetlands:
Check
with the town hall to see if you are on or near designated wetlands. They
usually have a big map on the wall that shows all the wetland areas in town. We
had no idea this would apply to us. Even if we were on wetlands we were only
going up so our job wouldn't of of concern anyway... right? Wrong. We happen to
have about 10 square feet of wetlands on our property (although they are never
wet, they are still designated wetlands). Just because you are going up you
still have to get permission to build by the town. How do you get permission?
Just like a variance but you sit before a different board of people. You show
them what you have to do and how you will in no way effect the wetlands and they
decide on it (aren't small town politics wonderful). They may also have you mark
the wetlands with red tape so equipment doesn't drive over it during
construction. We got ours no problem but just like the variance it set us back
$100 for the meeting and at least a months time. Many of these committees meet
only once a month so if you just miss a meeting you have to wait a month,
present your case, they decide by visiting the site and you get a ruling
(hopefully) the following month. There goes two months when you can not do
anything on your project.
Utilities:
You
should have a 200 amp electrical service coming into your house. We were
fortunate to already have one so we didn't need to do anything. This is also
something the town may not care about. If they don't ask, don't bring it up. You
can add it any time.
Septic:
The
town sanitarian has the job of making sure your septic system is adequate for
your house. If you are on city sewers this is not of concern. Septic systems are
rated by the number of bedrooms you have... not bathrooms. If you
give it a moments thought it makes sense. You can have 14 bathrooms but if you
have only two bedrooms chances are only four or five people can live in the
house and it's people, not bathrooms that generate waste.
What
we had to do was have a perk test conducted which measures the capability of the
soil to absorb liquid. We then had to show provisions for a new septic
system, on our property, should our present system fail. While the present
system was sufficient for a three bedroom home, existing codes would require a
specific area of leeching fields. Since we don't know if our present system
meets those specifications the town is nice enough to not make you dig up the
system to see what's down there but just make you show you have the property to
put one in should you need to. The town sanitarian was a big help in showing me
how to draw up this system. He told me the field area required for my perk rate,
how fields are usually laid out and what they cannot be adjacent to. Keep in
mind you cannot put fields anywhere. There are some big restrictions so even is
you are sitting on two acres you may find it near impossible to squeeze in a
septic system. Some towns may require an engineer to approve your plans so you
better check.
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