Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Off Topic Subjects => Topic started by: Grumblebuns on Sunday,March 06, 2022, 10:13:19 AM
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Some alternate light reading for you all.
My Neighbor, the County, my Garage and Me
Or
Ratted on by my neighbor
I’m sure there is a lesson to be learned from my story, so read on. Ever since I bought my first tract home back in the mid 80s, I dreamed of owning enough acreage to build a proper garage. It wasn’t until the late 90s that I seriously started looking around my area for that dream property. It took a year of driving around the rural areas around my town that I came upon a piece of land that had a small house with a fairly large attached garage which was then double my current garage space. I sold my first house in town and bought the property with the large garage. It didn’t take more than a few years to fill up this garage with my daily driver, project cars and motorcycles and this is when I seriously started thinking about building my budget dream garage. Not having any building experience, I called my friend and fellow co-worker who still had his General Contractors license for advice on building the garage.
You would think that living on 2.5 acres would give you a load of space to build upon. With my lot, that was not the case. Half of the property is on a relatively steep slope not suitable for building any structure. The remaining acreage is taken up by the house, a very large leach field for my septic system and a large fruit orchard out back.The remaining open space is restricted by side, front and back property setbacks/ easements and in my case a utility easement for a power line running across the side property carrying power to my house. That left only a relatively small area near the front gate to build my garage.
I gave my contractor friend only a few requirements that had to be met.
1.The slab had to be thick enough to support two four post lifts side by side.
2. 12 ft ceilings
3. Approximately 1000 sq ft
4. It had to meet all current county building codes.
Other than that, he had free rein on building the garage. A few days later he came up with a few sketches and ideas of what he thought it should look like. We walked the area of where the garage would be sited regarding suitability. Already, I knew the area would be very tight in fitting the square footage of the garage. I had a septic leach field to the back of the property, a large oak tree to the right and the fence line to the left and a driveway in front. The only way to get 1000 square feet was to build a “L” shaped garage. I gave the green light for construction to start. Some of you may be asking where are the architectural plans and permits, there weren't any. My plan was to build the garage now and apply for a permit at a later time, at this point I officially became a scofflaw.
The construction progressed quickly. My friend hired his son in law, a concrete specialist to excavate the foundation and pour the slab. He then hired a couple of construction framers to do the actual construction work. The garage was completed in about three months and I moved my projects in immediately. It didn’t take long to fill up my new garage space.
I had been retired for probably about three or four years when one afternoon while wrenching on a project, I noticed an official looking SUV with a San Diego County government emblem on the doors pulled in front of my gate. The driver was from the County code enforcement department. Apparently someone, I don’t know who at this point, had complained to the county and filed an official report that I had built an illegal structure on my property. From the gate, it was pretty obvious that my garage was the culprit. I was then served a notice of violation for having an unpermitted structure. This starts Chapter 2 in my long and frustrating journey in trying literally everything to save my garage from demolition, stay tuned.
Pic 1 - Proposed and most likely location for the garage
Pic 2,3 - Excavation/forms for slab being prepared
Pic 4,5 - Slab poured
Pic 6 - Framing begins
Pic 7 - Framing almost completed
Pic 8 - Finished garage in happier times
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It looks like a really nice garage! I’m looking forward to reading chapter 2!
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You got me hooked also.
But, Yikes
I built and renovated several homes and I would never build something that size without a permit.
Hope it works out in your favor
Dakazman
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Well, things get worse in Chapter 2, will post next weekend.
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I should say that upon reading your first installment, that eventually you were able to make things right - at least that is my hope!
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Now that is what I call a toybox..... ;)
Strangely enough, in our very first house we had similar problems. In my case the previous owner had laid a concrete base for a garage (a tale in itself, he was a bit of a character) but hadn't completed the build. I had no money but an aunt died and left me just enough cash to buy a concrete sectional garage which was fractionally wider than the base. These were quite common back then and came with manufacturers plans for you to submit for planning & building regulation approval.
Being new to all this I rang the local council, explained where & what with the result that I had a "just get on with it" letter. Bought the garage kit, laid some extra foundations and my dad came to help putting the kit together. Actually, he did it all with me just labouring and trying not to get in the way.
A couple of weeks later I had the same as you, a visit from a different council department. After getting over the shock it all turned out well, there really wasn't a problem, I just had to fill in another form and it was rubber stamped.
But it annoyed me that one of my neighbours had snitched. You couldn't see the garage from the road, in fact there were only two neighbours who could see it and one of those was a couple the same age as Helen & I so we got on well. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to confirm the culprit when the wife started banging on our gates complaining about noise.... I was just backing the Elan out to go to work.
Funny old world at times.......
Brian
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That's one of the other reasons I moved out to where I am now, to get away from nosy neighbors. Unfortunately, there is no way to prove it, but I suspect my back neighbor was the culprit. Talking with my side neighbor, my back neighbor apparently called the county code enforcement about my side neighbors metal building which apparently was not permitted. My side neighbor was eventually forced to tear it down. Why would any decent person screw with someone else and cause financial hard ship for that person. Suffice to say, I haven't spoken to my back neighbor in about five years
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Why would any decent person screw with someone else and cause financial hard ship for that person.
A decent person wouldn't. Unfortunately some people have too much time on their hands, and, driven by jealousy and a meaningless life, make a hobby of making other people's lives miserable. The self-righteous feeling of doing so is the only joy they experience. Decent people, on the other hand... well, some buy a vintage Lotus and from there-on-out have no more time to be concerned with what structures the neighbours are building in their yards.
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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
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Keeping my fingers crossed that this ends well!!!
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I’m keeping my fingers crossed too, Joji.
Expecting bureaucratic regulations to make sense can be an exercise in futility. I’m impressed that they seem sympathetic and even more impressed than one came up with a potential work around!
I’m anxiously awaiting your next installment!
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Yes, what a horrible thing to have to go through. Are there any fire break or fire truck access interests in that 60’ setback?
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I suspect that it has more to do with the county anticipating future development, more planned communities in the future. Even with the narrow width of my road, I’ve had concrete trucks, septic and propane tankers, ambulances and fire trucks make it up my road. Only one tractor trailer tried to negotiate the road, he didn’t make it. The inexperienced knucklehead got stuck about ¾ of the way up. If my neighbor's son wasn’t home (he’s experienced driving big rigs) and got him up the rest of the way, the trucking company would’ve had to call a tow recovery truck to pull him out. That would not have been pretty.
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Chapt. 3 - A life line is tossed .
The final method brought out in the meeting will require the services of a surveying company and a title company to modify the deed of title of the property for the new 40’ setback. The survey company will have to measure the exact distance from the existing property line and set it into the coordinates used for deeds. The title company will then have to change the existing deed to reflect the new coordinates and submit the changes to the county records section. This will incur more costs and will affect both my property and my neighbors. The last obstacle was the agreement of my neighbor to the proposed changes.. Not quite out of the woods yet but I see hope. It's great to have good relations with your neighbors. Even though the changes will prevent both of us from subdividing our property, my neighbor who has 7.5 acres, agreed to the changes involved since it would benefit both of us. Plus I would also be footing the total bill for the paperwork involved. With that unknown out of the way, I contacted a local survey company in town to make the required changes. It took several months and about $5000 to get the changes made, sent to the county recorder's office and the changes made official. With change being official, I again contacted the first survey company to come back and draw out the section of my garage still inside the new setback. I sent the revised property map to my architect to draw up new plans for the modified garage. From here, things progressed fairly quickly. With the new 40’ setback, the only section of the garage inside the setback was a triangular section approximately 5’ long on the short side and 10’ long on the long side forming a triangle on the one corner closest to the driveway (Pic 12). For ease of construction and visual appeal, we decided to cut out a 5”x10’ rectangular section essentially making a notch out of the affected corner. With the new plans in hand, I headed down to the county planning building for review, approval and stamping of the plans.
At this point, I’m ready to start construction. I again hired my original builder to start modifying the garage per the revised plans. The first item needed was to cut out and pour the new footing into the existing slab. After the new footing was poured, progress suddenly came to a stop. My friend could not find any framers willing to essentially do a small job, my garage wall modification. This dragged on for several months and then Covid-19 hit and made things worse. Pretty much giving up on getting anyone to take on my garage, my friend decides to do the work himself. It's been awhile since he's done any construction work so he’s out of practice and getting on in years. I’m a bit apprehensive about him getting injured but I give the OK. It took my friend several weeks to get the wall moved in and everything buttoned up for the county inspector to OK the work and allow us to move onto the next requirement, fire suppression.
A couple of years after my garage was originally built in Chapter 1, the county added a requirement that all structures over a minimum size (500 sq ft if memory serves) habitable or not will require a fire sprinkler system installed. This was after houses were catching on fire during a rash of severe brush fires starting over a decade ago to the present. It appears that I will have to install a sprinkler system to pass inspection. I think I spent over $20,000 to install a system on a 1000 sq ft garage. The sprinkler system was around $8000 by itself. The remainder was the trenching involved to dig out a trench approx 2’ deep and around 300’ long to lay down 2” diameter PVC pipe to tie into my main water system. The entire length had to be jackhammered out and it took the contractor several weeks to complete the job cursing all the way. An additional expense was the requirement that if PVC instead of copper was used as the piping material in the ceiling, the ceiling had to be drywalled. I had an option to use copper instead of PVC but chose PVC not because of cost, copper was a couple of grand more expensive but I wanted to drywall the ceiling anyway for heat insulation during the summer. In the end the cost would have been about equal.
After the sprinkler work was completed we called for and passed the fire water flow test and had the fire suppression box signed off. The last sign off on the permit was the final inside inspection. Before calling for it, I wanted the inside to look finished with all the panels installed, outlets hooked up and energized with ceiling lights working and a less cluttered look. It took about a month to get the garage clean up ready for its final inspection.
This ends Chapter 3. The final and 4th chapter will be posted next week which will be the current status of the garage … I hope.
Pic 11 - Architects drawing of 60’ setback and portion of the garage affected. Approximately half of the garage is inside the setback line
Pic 13 - Architect drawing of the corner of garage still inside the 40’ setback line
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Quite the story! Glad I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland!
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That is a garage worth fighting for Joji, hope it all works out.
Tom
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I began escaping CA in late 1989.
Your travails are an illustration of why.
Purely by coincidence my last trip out was the day of the Loma Prieta quake.
Sadly, irrational CA expats have been taking control of Nevada the last few years, trying to remake it into everything they fled. :(
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Would a sprinkler system really be useful in a wildfire situation?
We have similar issues in my neighborhood. We live in a watershed area so we have to maintain a certain percentage of permeable land. Neighbors have found out that additions like sunrooms or even a larger front porch were denied because it reduced their permeable land too much. On neighbor was not allowed to cover a part of his backyard with gravel because it was not permeable enough!
I hope you have a successful resolution for your garage!
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Would a sprinkler system really be useful in a wildfire situation?
We have similar issues in my neighborhood. We live in a watershed area so we have to maintain a certain percentage of permeable land. Neighbors have found out that additions like sunrooms or even a larger front porch were denied because it reduced their permeable land too much. On neighbor was not allowed to cover a part of his backyard with gravel because it was not permeable enough!
I hope you have a successful resolution for your garage!
About 10 years ago, during one of our years of multiple wildfires, I watched a TV video of a neighborhood being destroyed by fire. Embers from a fire would enter an attic through a vent and cause any flammable items in the attic to catch on fire which in turn cause the roof to burn from the inside out. The roof would burn and the embers spread by the wind would travel to the next house and cycle would continue. I doubt any sprinkler system in the ceiling would be of any help in stopping the fire in these circumstances.
Thanks, I'll have a current status in Chapter 4. As of this week, not totally resolved but should have confirmation in a few days. We shall see.
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Chapter 4 - Ended with a whimper
The final inside inspection was the last signoff for the garage checklist. After getting the garage cleaned up of the construction mess and finished looking as I could, we called for the final inspection. The inspector who showed up was not our normal inspector who did the previous inspections and signoffs so we didn’t know what to expect from this new guy. He spent 10-15 minutes looking over the garage plans, asking a few questions, had a quick look over the garage and signed off the last box on the form.
From this point on, I was looking for something from the county that I had fulfilled the permit requirements and they had closed my case. I wasn’t expecting a ticker tape parade but was expecting some type of formal letter that my garage was legal and not leave the homeowner hanging. About a month later, I received a form from the county assessor's office requesting information on type and description of the new construction, cost, size and total cost. A week after I sent that form in, I received a supplemental property tax bill for the new construction. Could this be the sign that I am finally legal? To confirm this, I had my permit manager (my friend who did the original construction) contact the county office. He was informed that my code violation case was closed out with the final inspection signoff and no further action was required on my part, my garage is legal.
Chapter 5 - Current status & Final thoughts
Looking back on it now, I probably shouldn’t have done what I did. It would have been impossible to anticipate future building code changes and with an illegal structure, grandfathering any changes would not apply in my case. If the installation of the sprinkler system was all that needed to be done, I could have gotten away with maybe $25k in additional cost just to meet code. The stucco and a new roof were additional expenses that were not needed for final signoff. Unfortunately the setback fiasco threw a wrench into the process and increased the final cost. One good thing about adding a garage is the increase in the assessed value of the property although my property taxes went up a small amount which was to be expected.
With this nightmare out of the way, I can finally go whole hog on modifying the garage for greater flexibility and ease of working inside. I moved most of my parts storage racks outside while I plan on building a storage shed later this year. As much as I hate to do this, my motorcycle riding days are over and I will be selling off most of my bikes. This will free up additional storage to move my remaining cars inside. Future plans include installing a Max Jack lift. Lets hope there is enough time for me to take advantage of the garage. I enjoy peeking inside other peoples' garages when they post photographs, I thought others may feel the same with mine.
Picture 14 - Main 20’x30’ section with small 10’x15’ assembly/work room in back. Enough room to fit an additional three more cars inside if I wanted to, I probably won’t
Picture 15 - Lots of clutter along the side that needs to be cleaned up and more lights. The four LED lights from Costco are OK for general lighting but will need task lights for working on the cars.
Picture 16 - My 20’x20’ side wing. There are three Europas hidden in the mess, can you spot them?
Picture 17 - There may be room for another four post storage lift, haven’t decided. The slab in this section was reinforced for such a possibility
Picture 19 - Most of the storage racks were moved outside until a storage shed can be built later this year.
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:pirate: :trophy:
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I have to say that after your last construction project, you have an indomitable spirit to consider another one!
That looks like a really nice garage! And you have some really nice things in it. I know selling your motorcycles won’t be fun but it will give you some valuable storage/work area.
I’m glad everything was finally resolved so that most of your original plans were preserved. I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it!
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Grumblebuns,
I too love looking into people's garages. :beerchug: Love, Love, Love.
I'm glad that's over for you. I thought the same thing when I got the CO, Certificate of occupancy, from the inspector. He actually said he would have given it to me a month earlier. :huh:
Do you plan on painting the walls and ceiling, or covering the plywood with sheetrock? My entire garage is covered with 5/8 fire rated sheetrock. just heat detectors run to the main fire detection for obvious reasons. a battery powered smoke alarm is installed for piece of mind.
I wish I had the fire suppression your county required.
When is the hobbist paint booth coming, or is that against the rules? :FUNNY:
dakazman
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The biggest relief was being able to get the cars out of the weather and back under cover. With the help of a friend, I'm moving the last car back into the garage. Two or so years outside took a toll on all of the cars parked outside.
Still undecided about the wall covering. I've always liked the rustic unfinished look of the rough sheathing and may leave it alone for now. The only downside to the wood is that it doesn't help with the overall lighting. The drywall on the ceiling was the best thing I could have done in regards to insulation. Along with the insulation in the walls it has kept the garage around 15-20 degrees warmer than the outside this winter. I'm hoping it will do the same this summer on the other end.
Don't give me ideas on a spray booth. There's a plan afoot to build a car port on the other side of the garage. It could be set up as a temporary paint booth.
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I thought it didn’t rain in California… but out in the sun will take its toll also. Our friends in the north really suffer with the water getting into the cracks in the glass and freezing, expanding the cracks.
I ran 3 sets of 6 led fluorescent fixtures in my garage and it really helps.
Shelving and cabinets come in time . I don’t want to bring up epoxy paint for the floor. 🥱
All in all , it looks fantastic. Take your time to breathe a little.
Best wishes
Dman.