Last week: Lots of lots… this week, lots of confusion!

Lots of confusion

Last week’s Talking Code article was about what is a lot, a parcel of land, how to define it and how to determine its size or shape.

Different types of lots were discussed.

Things like shoreline, road side, front yard, rear yard, side yard, width, area, streetfront and lot lines all have definitions in the Town of Webb Zoning Ordinance.

Those definitions were shown, word for word, straight from the Town’s Zoning Ordinance.

During this past week, after the publication of The Weekly Adirondack, this office received several calls regarding the article on lots.

Each and every question was relative to the definition of lot width along the shoreline.

The callers all said that their property assessment showed much more shoreline than what would be considered shoreline based on the Town’s own definition of a shoreline.

“Based on the Town’s definition of shoreline I only have 100 feet. But the Assessor’s office says I have almost 200 feet and I’m taxed on that. How could this be?”

Back in July of this year, a Talking Code article was all about how Codes and Assessments impact each other.

And they do, in some ways… they almost have to. State and federal building code standards automatically require certain costs and expenses be incurred when building or remodeling.

These costs and expenses end up being part of sales price of the property.

The sale price then generates values of property.

And the assessments should be reflective of the sale price.

So in that way, one does impact the other. But each is also very different and independent. Codes are codes and assessments are assessments.

Take a shoreline lot, that has a width of 100 feet as measured by the definition, but the side property lines are on a steep angle to the shoreline, thus giving that property potentially 200 feet of actual shoreline.

Would that lot sell for more than one that had its property lines perpendicular to the shoreline?

Thus only having an actual 100 feet of shoreline.

Common sense says sure, it would probably sell for more.

Now apply the Zoning Ordinance requirements for the placement of a new structure on a shoreline lot.

In most cases, 25 feet is the required structure setback from a side property line.

If there was not the definition as it is written, measuring the width of a lot perpendicular from the shortest side line, to the opposite sideline, you could end up with a very narrow lot, unable to fit a structure.

In a perfect lot where the shoreline is perpendicular to the sides of the lot, and then apply the side setbacks, each 25 feet, that leaves an area of 50 feet to place a structure.

Again, just as the article in July said, “Codes are codes. Assessments are based on values. And values are determined by the buyers.”

The two different methods of qualifying the width of a lot, and how much shoreline a property has, is needed because there are two different issues.

Codes do not set values; they establish a standard for development and growth. They help provide or maintain a quality of life, reasonable protection of our lands, standards for development of shoreline, water quality of lakes and rivers.

Assessments are reflective of values. And the width of a lot is not the same thing as how long the shoreline is. Two potentially very different things.

Using the definition from one type of law or standard to apply to a totally different law or standard cannot be done.

Each has a different purpose, and a different intent. Codes are codes, assessments are based on values, and values are determined by buyers.