Where we tell why I have no fingernails
Third on the agenda and with some (understandable) resistance on the part of my neighbor, the City of Beacon Zoning Board of Appeals granted our variance this evening; all with very little fanfare.
I spent about 5 minutes before the board explaining why we needed the variance and detailing the fact that we did go to the city at the beginning of the process to make sure we had all our ducks in a row. We had no plans to go for a variance when we designed the house. In fact, we attempted to avoid a variance by designing the house around the proper setbacks. But, alas, someone gave us a bit of bad information. (As I said before, we were given the setbacks for an accessory building or deck and not for the main house structure.) The board questioned me closely and after my neighbor stated that she wasn’t fond of the idea of our house being built within 10 feet of the property line, they asked whether it would be possible to redesign the house and move the garage. We then stated that because of the lay of the land and the time spent on design, it would be with great difficulty and considerable expense that the house could be redesigned. (Essentially, we would have had to start from ground zero.) The board discussed it a bit and then voted 6-1 in favor of the variance.
Next step? Pick up the building permit and finish the loan process.
Huzzah!