Tell me about your US zoning variance
September 3, 2024 10:30 AM Subscribe
Have you ever applied for a zoning variance with your local zoning authority in the United States? Can you tell me about it?
My wife and i are considering trying to add a story on to our small detached garage, but would need a zoning variance due to the garage's proximity to the property line. If you've ever done anything even remotely similar, I'd love to hear about what you think the keys to success were, especially as regards proving "singular disadvantage."
My wife and i are considering trying to add a story on to our small detached garage, but would need a zoning variance due to the garage's proximity to the property line. If you've ever done anything even remotely similar, I'd love to hear about what you think the keys to success were, especially as regards proving "singular disadvantage."
This will be very dependent on your location. Some zoning boards are rubber stamps as long as you have the cash for the permits. Others will fight anything that doesn’t match their vision with a vengeance.
posted by funkaspuck at 11:31 AM on September 3 [6 favorites]
posted by funkaspuck at 11:31 AM on September 3 [6 favorites]
In my community, things like that only have to go to a board of adjustment, which is still insanely petty and ridiculously stupid but not nearly as difficult or expensive as a zoning board.
See if your city allows for that, or if you truly have to get your property rezoned.
Also I read quite a few re-zoning applications for a living. Most are just scrawled with a single line, even if they come from major corporations, something that doesn't explicitly say 'it's a disadvantage because we say it is" but that's the message. It's not a paragraph or an essay defining the disadvantage, with stats and data, or a surprisingly persuasive essay. It's a sentence, with hopefully all the words spelled mostly correctly.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:55 AM on September 3
See if your city allows for that, or if you truly have to get your property rezoned.
Also I read quite a few re-zoning applications for a living. Most are just scrawled with a single line, even if they come from major corporations, something that doesn't explicitly say 'it's a disadvantage because we say it is" but that's the message. It's not a paragraph or an essay defining the disadvantage, with stats and data, or a surprisingly persuasive essay. It's a sentence, with hopefully all the words spelled mostly correctly.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:55 AM on September 3
I'm on the other side of this, as a village councilor. Since I'm not on our zoning commission I don't have to review applications directly, but I was pretty involved with our recent code revisions and have appeared as a concerned neighbor for a variance in the last year.
One recommendation I have is to sound out the neighbors directly adjoining you. Our code requires that we notify near neighbors about proposed variances, and that is often where things die - our committee is quite sensitive to neighborly sentiment against variances that change the look of the property or could be said to inconvenience them. I think some of it is bullshit, and am particularly suspicious of arguments about the "character of the village" because I think those arguments are heavily class- and even race-coded. But they happen, and depending on the makeup of your zoning body they can have a clear effect on your ability to make changes to your property.
I think that if you know your neighbors' concerns in advance you can sidestep this problem to some extent, whether by talking them around to your plans in advance, or wording your application so clearly within the language of your local zoning that there are no grounds to deny it.
Also, make sure your application is clear and provides all the requested information. Don't get denied on a technicality.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:32 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
One recommendation I have is to sound out the neighbors directly adjoining you. Our code requires that we notify near neighbors about proposed variances, and that is often where things die - our committee is quite sensitive to neighborly sentiment against variances that change the look of the property or could be said to inconvenience them. I think some of it is bullshit, and am particularly suspicious of arguments about the "character of the village" because I think those arguments are heavily class- and even race-coded. But they happen, and depending on the makeup of your zoning body they can have a clear effect on your ability to make changes to your property.
I think that if you know your neighbors' concerns in advance you can sidestep this problem to some extent, whether by talking them around to your plans in advance, or wording your application so clearly within the language of your local zoning that there are no grounds to deny it.
Also, make sure your application is clear and provides all the requested information. Don't get denied on a technicality.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:32 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
When I used to work in residential design, we'd try to avoid variances because they're hard to get, at least in my area (it can be very area- and jurisdiction-dependent). In addition to passing whatever the planning department at the city wanted, I think variances required a noticing process where everyone within 300' of the property in question would be notified that you were looking for a variance and it would be discussed at the next local planning board meeting and they could come and weigh in on it. But that's my area.
Just in general planning terms, plinth's variance would be easier to get because it's just an allowance for a different kind of occupancy and presumably not something like a fast food restaurant that would create a whole bunch of new traffic that the underlying zone was trying to prevent. A lot of zones in my area will allow an uninhabited structure under a certain size within the setback (such as a garage) pretty much because it's uninhabited - setbacks are a lot about open air, bulk and scale, and fire separation between properties, so you'll have that to overcome and not all variances are apples to apples comparisons that you can draw experience from.
posted by LionIndex at 12:44 PM on September 3
Just in general planning terms, plinth's variance would be easier to get because it's just an allowance for a different kind of occupancy and presumably not something like a fast food restaurant that would create a whole bunch of new traffic that the underlying zone was trying to prevent. A lot of zones in my area will allow an uninhabited structure under a certain size within the setback (such as a garage) pretty much because it's uninhabited - setbacks are a lot about open air, bulk and scale, and fire separation between properties, so you'll have that to overcome and not all variances are apples to apples comparisons that you can draw experience from.
posted by LionIndex at 12:44 PM on September 3
I want to emphasize funkapuck's point that this process and experience is VERY location-dependent.
Where I live (city with ~300k people), there is a formal, well-documented process that involves a pre-meeting with city staff before applying for the variance, an application and a presentation to the zoning board. Getting a variance here is not at all impossible, but this is not a "rubber stamp" kind of place. If I was going to apply for a variance where I live, here's how I would do it:
1. Make sure your immediate neighbors know about and are ok with your plan. In an ideal world they would write you a short letter of support to include with your application materials.
2. Hire an architect or builder who has experience with variances to draw up the plans, assist with the application paperwork AND do the presentation to the board. The homeowners I have seen who try to do this themselves are at a huge disadvantage --since most of the presentations to the board are for commercial properties who have a professional development team, the expectations for the proposal presentation and the presenter's ability to answer questions are very high. The only homeowners/non-professionals I have seen succeed in presenting their own variance requests are in situations where the variance seems like a "no-brainer" because of some unusual feature of the property or accessibility needs of the homeowner. In my city, I wouldn't assume I could present a project like yours myself and be successful.
The meeting minutes from your municipality's zoning meetings are likely public, and the application materials from past projects may be too. Looking at those would probably give you a lot of helpful information.
posted by mjcon at 12:49 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
Where I live (city with ~300k people), there is a formal, well-documented process that involves a pre-meeting with city staff before applying for the variance, an application and a presentation to the zoning board. Getting a variance here is not at all impossible, but this is not a "rubber stamp" kind of place. If I was going to apply for a variance where I live, here's how I would do it:
1. Make sure your immediate neighbors know about and are ok with your plan. In an ideal world they would write you a short letter of support to include with your application materials.
2. Hire an architect or builder who has experience with variances to draw up the plans, assist with the application paperwork AND do the presentation to the board. The homeowners I have seen who try to do this themselves are at a huge disadvantage --since most of the presentations to the board are for commercial properties who have a professional development team, the expectations for the proposal presentation and the presenter's ability to answer questions are very high. The only homeowners/non-professionals I have seen succeed in presenting their own variance requests are in situations where the variance seems like a "no-brainer" because of some unusual feature of the property or accessibility needs of the homeowner. In my city, I wouldn't assume I could present a project like yours myself and be successful.
The meeting minutes from your municipality's zoning meetings are likely public, and the application materials from past projects may be too. Looking at those would probably give you a lot of helpful information.
posted by mjcon at 12:49 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
The only homeowners/non-professionals I have seen succeed in presenting their own variance requests are in situations where the variance seems like a "no-brainer" because of some unusual feature of the property or accessibility needs of the homeowner. In my city, I wouldn't assume I could present a project like yours myself and be successful.
I think this speaks to the "singular disadvantage" portion of the question - like, is there no other way to add a room onto your property other than building on top of the garage, and is that because of some weird reason like your lot is oddly shaped so the standard zone setbacks do weird things or something similar? To me, that feels like the kind of information they'd be looking for.
posted by LionIndex at 12:53 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
I think this speaks to the "singular disadvantage" portion of the question - like, is there no other way to add a room onto your property other than building on top of the garage, and is that because of some weird reason like your lot is oddly shaped so the standard zone setbacks do weird things or something similar? To me, that feels like the kind of information they'd be looking for.
posted by LionIndex at 12:53 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
You may want to ask this on NextDoor or somewhere where you'll reach local homeowners. It's super duper location specific. I have gotten an extensive set of permits and never heard the "singular disadvantage" term you mentioned.
posted by slidell at 3:27 PM on September 3
posted by slidell at 3:27 PM on September 3
We had some neighbors who wanted to construct two additions to their home. They tried a charm offensive (wine and cheese party for the neighbors to discuss their plans) and also hired zoning consultants. Said consultants consisted of one or two former members of the local zoning board. Ostensibly, their function was to hone the homeowner's pitch in a way that would be most palatable to the zoning board. It had a whiff of corruption to it, but they did prevail with the town.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 4:46 PM on September 3
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 4:46 PM on September 3
I haven't served on our local planning commission, but I did serve on the borough assembly and I'm currently on the platting board (my municipality separates zoning and subdivision questions into two community boards rather than combining everything under the planning commission).
I would strongly suggest that you go talk to the planning staff at your local municipality as your first step. These folks will be able to give you a sense of what is involved in the process and how complicated it is likely to be --- they work on this stuff all day every day and are likely to be extremely knowledgable about the process and how the process might work in your specific situation.
posted by leahwrenn at 7:02 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
I would strongly suggest that you go talk to the planning staff at your local municipality as your first step. These folks will be able to give you a sense of what is involved in the process and how complicated it is likely to be --- they work on this stuff all day every day and are likely to be extremely knowledgable about the process and how the process might work in your specific situation.
posted by leahwrenn at 7:02 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
Nthing the highly location specific sentiment. Every zoning enforcement board or bureaucracy has their own tradition of what constitutes a valid reason to grant a variance (aka exception) to the zoning rules everyone else needs to follow. Your local planning staff will be able to set your expectations in terms of process and potentially likelihood. If it seems at all like a close call, consider hiring someone with experience on similar matters such as an architect or local builder who has helped a client obtain a similar variance in the past.
posted by meinvt at 7:58 PM on September 3
posted by meinvt at 7:58 PM on September 3
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posted by plinth at 10:45 AM on September 3