One very common question asked when someone is getting a building permit is: “How come there are other buildings like what we want, but we can’t have the same thing?”
Typically the question comes from the property owner, and occasionally from the contractor.
Most contractors understand that the history of the property is the key to answering the question… Not just the property they are working on, but the property they may be making reference to.
Without having a thorough understanding of the history of a property, it is impossible to determine what kind of lawful, pre-existing grandfathered structures may have been there.
“How come they have a brand new building too close to the shoreline and we can’t?”
Is that new building a replacement of an old grandfathered building?
Was it recently remodeld, or at least since 1973?
Did someone replace all the siding?
Did those people actually obtain a variance to have what they have?
To answer all the questions, one has to dig into the records and find out.
There are too many potentially lawful reasons that explain why a building is non-conforming to just otherwise assume they were given some kind of preferential treatment.
Things just don’t work that way.
Any code office often finds themselves in a defensive position to explain why something is the way it is, in another situation.
Certainly there are those situations where the history does not explain something, but those situations are becoming less and less as time moves on.
In general, grandfathering goes back to 1973 regarding Adirondack Park Agency regulations and back to December 1965 for local zoning regulations. That’s fifty years ago now.
For those of you who were around and can remember when the Town of Webb adopted its first local zoning regs, surely you also remember the controversy that surrounded it.
Imagine what the town would be like today if that never happened. Minimum lot sizes, shoreline frontage, location of buildings… all these things would have been ignored.
All too often people complain about their property assessments being too high. It’s not too hard to conceive the opposite, very low values if zoning was never adopted.
It’s also not too hard to conceive of the potential environmental problems, sanitary problems, traffic, parking and general overcrowding… especially along the shorelines. Add to that all the “neighborly disputes” that arise when people are in close proximity with each other.
Of course, people always get along with their neighbors, right?
There are several areas in the Town of Webb that tend to develop certain neighborly disputes, which can almost always be attributed to being simply just too close to each other.
Even more complicated is the sharing of common properties with multiple parties, especially a shoreline lot.
Getting back on topic… Before you assume that someone else did something illegal, without permits, or otherwise has something that you are being told you can’t have… and you can’t understand why your local code office is saying you can’t do something like someone else… look into the history.
Understand the facts.
Understand the codes and ask questions.
At the code office, we will research all the history of the properties involved and find the answers to your questions.
Usually the answers are there.
We do understand why certain assumptions are made. However, we will look at your project and try to make it happen as you hope… if we can.
If what you’re hoping for just does not fit the rules, we’ll work with you and your design professional to find the next best solution.
If you really have to have something, but the code office cannot approve it, anyone always has the right to pursue an area variance. That is a whole process by itself, with no guarantee of success.
The one thing we can’t do is magic.