zoning purgatory

June 9, 2009

UGH!!!! We're in a BIG zoning mess! I don't know what we're doing. Newton just made an "oops" when changing the permit/zoning process 2 months ago. We're stuck in limbo land. The board knows this was a bad decision but unfortunately any town fix can take months. We thought we were pulling permits this week! I was at a town meeting last night until 11 pm with everyone agreeing this issue was not well thought out before becoming a zone requirement. (FAR - floor area ratio - it effects people on small lots with big house. Franklin community is very hard hit - 20 - 40% of the houses in this area couldn't add on a mudroom!) Our limits are .35 and we're sitting at that point now. We want to add 200 sq. ft = .015. The house next door has a FAR of .75!

We need to get a special permit for our bump outs which can take a few months on the short end. If the aldermen change the FAR requirements we won't need a special permit. I just got off the phone with our contractor. We will come up with a definitive plan tomorrow but at this point I think we will hold off until Sept before we go any farther. One work around was to start downstairs in July (bathrooms, staircase, doorways, etc.) and hopefully get the required permits before they finished. Another plan is to take out the heating and windows on our enclosed porch and hope the FAR numbers work. An issue for our contractor was that he may not be available in fall. He will get back to me tomorrow on it but he just called my architect about the latter plan when I thought we had a plan to start in Sept. UGH!!!

Our HVAC contractor drained the 1st floor radiators yesterday. Today they were to take out the pipes in the basement. I have put him on hold. He was trying to get the guy on the phone to tell him to stop. He hasn't reach him yet. I'm guarding the house and won't let him enter. Right now there's no heat available downstairs. I would hope they don't need any heat this summer.