The First Panic Attack

Well, it was inevitable. The first hurdle to be thrown up when you're doing a good thing.

Our existing garage (not a part of our remodeling job) is not in compliance with county zoning.

Our GC Todd was prepping to pull permits and noticed on our survey that the garage sits beyond a 45' builder setback from the curb by about 8', and that our new front porch is drawn in a manner that clips it by about a foot as well. While we were under the impression from the surveyor that this shouldn't be an issue, in reality, this was not going to work.

And submitting a variance would not be approved until the public hearing on October 8th.

Blimey!

To top it all off, they could not find any variance which allowed for the garage to be where it is on the property. If there were a variance already on file, we could proceed under that variance. How could that have happened? Our neighbors are on a 35' setback ... did someone think we were also? If there was not a variance, how did our home get approved for occupancy when it was built if the garage was not behind the line? Oy vey.

I tracked down the previous owners in Columbus ... they had no idea. They were either not the first owners or they bought it as a spec house. We're also trying to contact the original builder, but no success yet. We'll keep trying.

Our options? Well, waiting until mid-October is out. Changing the depth of the front porch would help with the new construction, but we'd still have a property out of compliance. For those of you who know me personally, I'm a big rule follower, not a rule breaker. I need to pick up the house and shift it back 10'. Also out of the question, methinks.

This is where a really good GC steps in. And he did in spades. Todd and I had a phone tennis match for the next half hour, and he had been in the zoning office figuring out what our options were. There was a folder for our subdivision missing from records in the basement ... it's possible our variance is in that missing folder. Anyway ... we're going to keep moving and try to work with the zoning office within the appropriate rules and regulations so we can get permits to proceed.

Todd left for a well-deserved family vacation, and we've got our homework to do ... filling out the variance application and getting letters from our neighbors stating they have no objections to the existing garage (which has been there for years, obviously) and no objections to the new front porch. Should not be an issue. Stay tuned.

Breathe in ... breathe out. Ahhuuuummmmmmmmm. [Repeat]