I suppose I'm looking for sympathy, but I hit a delay today in getting the permit in Baltimore County in Maryland. I guess the problem stems from living in a development.
I'd checked out everything, I thought. I researched building setbacks for my zoning - 25 feet. I was at 43' at the worst spot. True, the surveyor's plat I had showed that the nearest spot to the front for the house was 50', but at least all was above 25' and I should be ok. So I went for the permit today and the zoning office said that the minimum was 50' because that's what's shown on the development drawing - ONLY for my house!! Can you believe it?! It's because the 4 other houses on my side of the street all have their wells between the house and the street so there was no need to limit their proximity to the street because this would prevent it. Pain in the ****!! due to the layout, it's going to be very difficult to redraw the plans (attached via a new mudroom).
So I have an appointment for Thurs to start the process to get a red-lined change to the developer's plan. So I guess the zoning rules don't hold. I had to do a zoing variance at my last place to exceed the roof height limit and thought I was avoiding that (smartly) because this place is attached. You can't win!! I don't think this is called a zoning variance (because it's not a variance from zoning) but the guy said it requires a 30 day posting, etc. Here we go again. I already got the home owners association architectural review committee approval. I hope I can hide the sign from the neighbors!!
Thanks for reading. Any suggestions?
I guess I'll wait. If this doesn't work, I'll consider changing the plans and meet the 50' setback.
Tom
I'd checked out everything, I thought. I researched building setbacks for my zoning - 25 feet. I was at 43' at the worst spot. True, the surveyor's plat I had showed that the nearest spot to the front for the house was 50', but at least all was above 25' and I should be ok. So I went for the permit today and the zoning office said that the minimum was 50' because that's what's shown on the development drawing - ONLY for my house!! Can you believe it?! It's because the 4 other houses on my side of the street all have their wells between the house and the street so there was no need to limit their proximity to the street because this would prevent it. Pain in the ****!! due to the layout, it's going to be very difficult to redraw the plans (attached via a new mudroom).
So I have an appointment for Thurs to start the process to get a red-lined change to the developer's plan. So I guess the zoning rules don't hold. I had to do a zoing variance at my last place to exceed the roof height limit and thought I was avoiding that (smartly) because this place is attached. You can't win!! I don't think this is called a zoning variance (because it's not a variance from zoning) but the guy said it requires a 30 day posting, etc. Here we go again. I already got the home owners association architectural review committee approval. I hope I can hide the sign from the neighbors!!
Thanks for reading. Any suggestions?
I guess I'll wait. If this doesn't work, I'll consider changing the plans and meet the 50' setback.
Tom
