BUILDING PERMIT WOES

My garage contractor (The ,Original Shed & Garage Co.), submitted an application to Pima County 6 days ago, for a building permit.  Yesterday, I stopped by the business, to check on the permit status, and was told that minutes before I arrived, the denied application was returned to the Garage Co. by the Pima County Development Services Department.   The main reason for denial was the fact that the square footage of the garage I want to build, exceeds the maximum allowable, which is either, 1,500 square feet, or 70% of the house square footage.  In our case, the 1,500 square footage is the larger of the two, and my proposed 32' X 48' garage is 1,536 square feet, 36 feet over the maximum.  Who comes up with these rules? 

On top of being over the maximum by 36 square feet, the county said there is a 10 X 12 shed on the property, which deducts another 120 square feet off the 1,500 maximum.  Huh, what shed?  Another reason for denial was that the engineered plans were only good up to 1,024 square feet.  The last reason for rejection was the county said they needed a plot map showing where the Natural Open Space (NOS) boundaries are located.

With the mindset of wanting to be like a bull in a china shop, tempered with the reality of knowing that wouldn't get me very far, I headed off to the building department.  While waiting about 30 minutes for my name to be called, I had time to formulate my strategy, for turning this thing around, or so I thought. 

On the square footage issue, the county had looked at an older Google satellite image of the property, and it showed a 10x12 shed.  When told in my most convincing voice, that we had just purchased the property, and the shed was no longer there, the gal signed off on that 120 square feet.  OK, so now I'm still over the maximum by 36 square feet, and there's no way they are going to allow the extra footage, unless I go through the waiver process, that requires fees, notification to the neighbors, and other stuff.  Not going there, so I asked if taking a foot off the back of the building (32 x 47 = 1,504) would be allowable.  The gal, being a black & white type of person, said "nope, that's still 4 square feet over, you'll have to go down to 32 x 46".  When a guy got involved regarding the building plans, I brought up the square footage issue once again, asking him if  the 1,504 number would fly, he said they weren't going to quibble over 4 square feet, and I could resubmit the application at the revised number of 32 x 47.  He must have had a little more horsepower, because the gal didn't say a word.

The other issues of new plot map and engineered plans were addressed with the Garage Co., and I was assured that the engineers stamp of approval, and the new map would be resubmitted to the county, the first of next week.  So, another weeks delay, and my garage got 1 foot shorter, but at least it's still going to happen someday, I think.
 

 

 I was almost there, when the batteries in my drills died.  I calculated that there were approx. 420 deck screws in this old deck, and I'm guessing that about 1/3 of them would not come out.  The blisters on my right hand are testament to their stubbornness!