Variance

I brought in the big guns to my meeting with the City Zoning By-Law officer today.

I figured there was no reason to sit back and begin this process quietly, that I may as well start with a flourish and build up from there, taking no prisoners, and leaving no bridges unburned behind me.  This might be war, so let's show 'em what I've got, keeping a few things hidden up my sleeves for later when the time is right, but set the stage early.

Yup, that's right, I brought Karen with me!

I figured it was time she learn what it is that I deal with on a daily basis with the City, and why it can take months to get a permit issued even when the job seems simple and straight forward.  We arrived a few minutes late to our 9 am meeting thanks to my impatient driving in morning rush hour traffic (anyone remember the car pee pee dance? Yeah, that was me a little thing morning...) and then the City parking lot that is reserved for people visiting the Planning and Property Department was filled, and some yahoo figured his precious truck needed two spaces rather than one like everyone else, so we had to park in the metered lot further away... grumble, grumble, grumble...  This patience stuff is hard.  Give me time.

I used my contractor status, such as it is, to use the separate entrance to the waiting area, and introduced Karen to some of the staff that I have had the pleasure of getting to know over the years as I have waited for permit intake meetings etc, and as we sat she commented how "office-like" this area was compared to the more mall-like building we had just passed through.  The low height t-bar ceilings and standard fabric covered office cubicle partitions and fluorescent lighting which was my reality back when I toiled for the City all those years ago are still in use here, and Karen noted the piles of plans and paperwork on counters and desktops, and I think she was beginning to understand the office environment much better.

Our Zoning Officer was late to meet us - he was on a call with another homeowner looking to build on a unique-shaped lot and was discussing the options and issues said homeowner would likely face in his attempt to construct a second dwelling on his large sabre-toothed-shaped lot.

I have had the pleasure of working with this particular City employee for the past 5 or 6 years - he had been my regular permit intake technician (fancy title for the person who I meet with and to whom I provide the information regarding our commercial construction permit applications) but had sought a promotion or change in employment scope, and was now located further away from the public areas, in a corner of the maze of cubicles that is this City office workspace.  Having a familiar and friendly face to deal with on this matter is a bonus for us, and hopefully will allow the entire process to proceed smoothly.

He had to get another chair for Karen - he has 2 in his cubicle for guests - but the second one was buried beneath plans and drawings and files bulging beyond their elastic banded file folders.  We exchanged pleasantries, and I introduced K and we visited as he began to assemble our application from the documents we had brought along.  We enquired how long we might expect the Variance process to take and he said in our case - asking the requirement of a 25' front yard to be relaxed to 17' for the new garage and entryway - shouldn't encounter too many issues.



But then he stopped, apologized, and corrected himself, and confided in a lower tone as he leaned forward towards us across his desk, that he had shown our application to the Planner, whose cubicle is right behind his, and Mr Planner had said, "I'm not sure I like it."  Gee, that kind of attitude reminds me of someone I spoke to last year about this...

You guessed it, Mr Planner is the lovely individual I spoke with last spring about our plans and who gave the impression of someone with entirely more power than his education or personality should allow.

Great.

We finished with the application, and were informed that it will likely take 10 business days until we're called to pick up the bright yellow signage that must be posted conspicuously on our property that advises any and all who care to read it, that we are asking for a variance from the by-law and for what reason etc. and that the yellow signage must be posted for 14 days, and then it may take another 2 weeks until a decision has been reached.  We wrote a cheque for a little over $400, thanked our zoning officer for his help and guidance, and were led back through the maze and out into the main mall hallway.

So, we've done what we can do, now we wait for the call.

At some point I'm sure we'll be dealing with Mr Planner.  This should be fun...

I Swear We've Been Here Before...

sigh

Some days it feels like life won't cut you a break no matter how hard you try.

Last time we talked about the reno project and last summer's snag with the City's zoning officer and the illogical bylaws that one must abide by, or not.  Since then, I've finished the drawings, had my engineer look them over and give me his seal of approval - literally - (okay, so its a stamp - same idea) and I booked an appointment with the City to apply for a building permit.

And waited.

Waiting and building permits go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Trust me.

This is what I do for a living.  I wait. I wait for plans; I wait for details to be decided; I wait for prices; I wait for trades; I wait for more prices; I wait for the City... I wait.  And wait.  And wait.  And I'm getting rather good at it too, if I do say so myself.  But I don't like it.  That was never part of the deal, but it's the system we have, and it's the way that system works, so deal with it.

But wait! Theres more!

Waiting that is.

I took the waiting time this past week to relax and enjoy the final week of April what with Spring finally returning along with the Canada Geese and nothing seemed to fit the bill quite like doing my taxes.

The fun never ends around here, huh?

Yes Taxes!  Yes, I know they are due on the 30th.  I told you I'm rather good at waiting, remember?  Anyways, I got them done and filed Wednesday and thought I'd finally be able to relax and just be for awhile.  Apparently I've been under a bit of stress lately - or so says the doctor who figures the migraines must have a stress related component to them.  Gee, can't understand where the stress might be coming from, can you?

Let's see, house reno plans drawn and altered and redrawn and finally approved. Check.  Taxes organized and filed, and payments send in electronically. Check  Karen's car in to the shop for its 64000 km checkup and oil change. Check.

Wait.  Not so fast.  Nevermind that this is a biggie in the Passat's service schedule -  to the tune of about $500 - really, can you get out of the service area of the dealer for less than that these days?  No, cuz, K's car has had a shimmy for the last couple weeks - I noticed it as soon as I got in the car one day - she couldn't feel it. It was obvious that the car was not balanced properly - either that or it developed a case of Parkinson's while parked on the driveway - or something, but it most certainly was not normal.

So our service rep from VW dropped off his car on Wednesday morning to take the Passat in - its one of the service perks we like about VW - and we gave it the once over before he departed.  I mentioned the shimmy, and he thought about the milage on the car and we checked the tires - and sure enough the wear bar was evident on all 4!  He said he'd check into the cost of a set of new tires to replace the Conti's that came with the Passat, and have the service rep call me.

Yeah, okay.  That call would end up costing us another $900 what with new tires, alignment and taxes etc...  It's like buying a new roof for the house.  In the end you've spent a lot of money, and it doesn't feel like you got anything to show for it.  Not something fun like a new iPad or anything.  But it is the safety of the car's occupants we are talking about so okay, back to the list.

No, that's it.  No more items.  That's not so bad, right?

Insert ringing phone sound here...

Hi, It's so-and-so from the City Zoning Office calling... (why wouldn't it be?)  ...anyways, about your application, you know you're going to need to apply for a Zoning Variance because of that reduced front yard, right?...

(fade to black, with the Zoning Officer's voice mumbling in the background)

sigh...

Here we go again

I started this blog a little over a year ago to document the changes we were planning to undertake in transforming our house at that time.  After a few years of planning and procrastinating we were ready to take the plunge and finally get to redo-ing the kitchen.

Here's  A Look Back, for those of you who joined us late.

It seemed like things were about to take off.

And they did, only to crash back to earth a short while later.

We managed to get the electrical panel replaced with a larger, more spacious model; one with room to grow.  And we got the new lot survey done and updated, and I brought in my structural engineer to advise me on beam sizes and concrete foundation pile work, and we began to plan in earnest.

I ran my idea for expansion into the existing way too small single car garage past the City Planning official, who seemed to exhibit a bit of a God complex, or he was compensating for some other short-coming, whichever, or both, and I got the distinct impression he wasn't keen on my idea, and without coming out and saying it, hinted strongly at the likelihood of me not gating a variance to convert the garage into living space.

I could park on my driveway as long as it led to a parking space ie, pad or garage.  Except I wanted to convert my garage into the new kitchen space.  If we did that, then the current parking location on the existing driveway would cease to be a driveway (the magic that is city bylaws) and we'd be in violation of the by law because we were now parked in the front yard - even though the cars hadn't moved an inch from where they have always parked.

I didn't want to have to fight that hard to build the kitchen we wanted, and have to go for a variance and then possibly get turned down, or get approved but then be so late into the construction season that we couldn't finish.

So we postponed, and I devoured the by law and found what I needed to get past the hurdle.

If I covered the existing parking space /driveway by building a new garage and still had the minimum required distance from the front of said new garage to the front property line (ie, new driveway) Voila! No more bylaw issues.

Except that would mean building a new double garage in front of the existing single car garage.

Which would also mean covering the existing front entry with the new garage.

So? Build a new entry along with the garage. Simple, right?

Well, sure.  But take a look at the existing house again:

Now picture a new extension in line with the side of the existing garage, coming forward about 20 feet, wide enough to park 2 cars in.  For those of you spatially challenged, that would be about as wide as from the corner of the existing garage over to the siding by the existing entry, and then about 8 feet in front of the existing house.

Here, let me show you:

I also drew in the new entry over on the other side over there.  Yeah, I know it doesn't look like anything. Bite me.  This was a quick sketch to show you where we're headed.  Keep up.

Did I mention my headaches make me snarky?

Maybe just a little.

So, if you've followed along this far, you now see our dilemma.  This is ALOT more involved now than it was a year ago.  This means new foundation work. Which means about 6 or 7 - 20' deep 16" diameter piles and a bunch of conceret grade beams. And a whole lot of roof framing.  I can't just walk outside with my magic yellow line drawing thing and build this addition out there.  Nevermind the interior work - which, realistically? looks like Phase 2 of this project now.  More work, means more budget, and more time.  It also means a redo plan-wise to make sure what looks fairly simple can actually be done.

I have faith I can make it work. It's just construction.  Sure it will be a big upheaval of our lives, and eat up any free time I have, and eat into our Disney vacation plans.

But we can park where we want...