Building permits, zoning issues and the design police

Although building permit requirements will vary from place to place, getting a building permits will involve a completed permit application and some form of plans documenting the work. Ultimately, all building departments are interested in two primary issues:

• Zoning issues
• Building issues

Zoning issues:
To give home owners certainty that they won’t wake up to find out they are living next to a 7-11, towns and cities have zoning codes. These codes originated in the early part of the 20th century. They were created in response to the booming cities of the era and were intended to segregate uses (residential, institutional, and industrial) from each other and mitigate the effects of the rampant industrialization of cities. They regulate uses on individual lots and establish the overall bulk of the house (lot coverage, height, set back, etc.).

Usually, zoning codes only have relevance if you are changing the “footprint” of the building. For the purposes of remodeling, the most common way you would do this is if you are adding a dormer to create living space in an attic or adding a new deck. Before doing either of these projects, you’d need to demonstrate that the dormer doesn’t increase the height past the height limit or that the deck is not in a setback.

You do this by demonstrating via a site plan and other relevant documents. BuildSmart is prepared to help you organize this type of presentation.


Building issues (The design police)
In some heavily regulated cities, notably in California, design review is required for any exterior change to a house, new decks, fences, etc. This truly is the worst case, kind of like being on The Apprentice, but rather than Trump, you have a career bureaucrat telling you that your design is fired.

In a cruelly ironic twist, cities and towns that require design review, also expect you to pay for this privilege. The fees associated with design review can quickly add up to thousands of dollars, since there is so much administrative time involved. So, not only do you have to throw yourself at the feet of the design police, you have to pay for the privilege.

Design review boards require plans and elevations of your proposed changes (BuildSmart is prepared to help here too!). They have very specific requirements about what needs to be shown on these plans, so the reality is that you’ll wind-up hiring an architect to produce these plans adding to the cost.

In spite of your best intentions of complying with these rules, improving the neighborhood, etc. design review usually turns into some kind of crazy, thru the looking glass process. This is especially true if there is any form of public comment allowed in the process. The bureaucrats who administer this process are desperately afraid of controversy or making a mistake, so when the crazy lady with 78 cats who lives next door to you chimes in on how the fence you are proposing to build will affect the tilt of the earth, the bureaucrat who is running the process is forced to take her comments into account.

Contact BuildSmart if your project involves zoning issues or a design review. We'll be sure the process goes as soon as humanly possible - even if we can't do anything about the 78 cats next door.