Chapter 2 - Things go from bad to worse
Not having gone through a building permit process before, I figured the best way to get started is to go down and talk to the County Planning and Development Services people. There, I paid the permit fee, a penalty fee for my non permitted structure, and received a checklist to track the progress of the various stages of the build along with the required inspections and signoffs.The permit is good for three years. The next step is to hire an architect to draw up plans for the existing garage .Looking through the local phone directory, I found an architect who happens to live only a few miles from me in the same local area. After looking over the garage, he comments that the construction is decent and doesn’t see any obvious mistakes or code violations in the garage itself. At this point, he is a bit concerned about the closeness of the garage to the front street and recommends that I hire a survey company to locate the property setbacks.for the drawings. In the meantime he starts drawing up the architectural plans for the garage.
The survey company shows up a few weeks later and spends most of the morning locating all of the property marker pins. After locating the front property line in front of my garage and measuring the 60” from the line to my garage, I got the gut wrenching news. A large part of my garage is located inside the 60” setback, not by just a bit but by a shit load. Pic 9 shows the disaster. The 60’ point leaves about a 15’ section for the remaining garage outside the setback. I’m depressed and livid at the same time. What the f**k can you do with that tiny space !!!.
At this point, I’ve pretty much hit a brick wall on how to proceed from here. I spent the next several months thinking up possible solutions.
1. Moving the garage over the required 20 feet plus which would have required me to cut down my oak tree and pour a new slab. Then hire a company to lift and move the garage over beyond the setback.
2. Scrunch my existing garage by building a new wall outside the setback resulting in a much smaller garage and then demolishing the section inside the setback. This would end up with about a 15’x20’ narrow box of a garage.
3. Tear down the garage.
During this period, my architect informs me that the county building department has a process called a “variance” and it might be worthwhile looking into it. Out of options, I head back down to the planning and zoning desk. Right away my hopes are dashed when the planner tells me straight up that the county rarely if ever gives variances. He tells me that my only option is to demolish the garage which would require me to file for a demolition permit; the irony of this is not lost on me. I head back home pretty much depressed and totally out of ideas on how to proceed from here. At this point, I put the garage on the back burner for several months. I believe my original permit expired during this time period because several months later, I got another visit from the county code enforcement people. Not being home at the time, they left a note telling me I was in violation of the county building code. My unintentional delay tactic apparently didn’t work so I again took another trip to the county building and applied for another permit and paid the applicable fees.
Forced to take another hard look at my situation, I conferred with my architect to discuss my path going forward. He suggests writing a personal letter to the head honcho, the Director of the County of San Diego Planning and Development Services with a heartfelt plea for any type of help. A couple of weeks after mailing the letter, I received a letter from the head of the section for building permits, suggesting a meeting to discuss my problem in person with some of her lead planners which I did immediately.. I don’t know if the Director actually read my letter but apparently passed it down to his staff for action so I must have been pretty persuasive.
Not knowing what to expect from the meeting, I dragged my architect with me for technical support. At the meeting the county people appeared to be sympathetic to my cause and again reiterated that variances are not issued for owner caused problems. These guys knew all of the ins and outs of the permit and zoning laws. During the discussion, they did throw out a couple of sections of the county zoning and planning manual where if certain prerequisites and conditions on my property were met the setback requirements could be bypassed. Unfortunately my property layout didn’t meet any of them. Before the hour-long meeting was about to end, one of the lead planners tossed out one last option. There was a method to modify the deed to a property where a section of the setback/easement line could be adjusted back. They went over the process I had to follow to get it done. This could be the possible escape route I needed and ends Chapter 2 .
Pic 9 - The fire extinguisher shows the approximate mark for the 60’ setback/easement. The garage wings are 20’ wide and the remaining section outside the setback is 12’. The entire section to the left will have to be demolished
Pic 10 - The road and my property ends at my side neighbors open gate at the end of the road.. The property line separating my property from my across the road neighbor is the unmarked and undefined centerline of the road
Pic 11 - Shows the terrain typical of my area. The slope to the right of the access road is about half of my 2.5 acre property. The road is about 8’ wide on average. Why the county has a 60' setback/easement requirement with this type of terrain is mind boggling. My architect surmises that the county wants to have the option to expand the road to four lanes in the future Mind you , this is a private, owner maintained road that dead ends, unbelievable
