I'm so bummed at my city building rules

braxx

braxx

Club Member
My wife knows my passion for tinkering on cars, tractors and pretty much anything with an engine. At the begining of the week she recomended that I add on to my garage and put up a hoist. So I looked into it.
So I have a 40x165 lot (6600sqft).
28x40(1120sqft) house , 20x26(520sqft) garage and 10x10(100sqft) shed for a total of 1740sqft.
First building ordinance is you can only have up 35% of your lot covered with structures.
Cool, I'm at 26% right now.
Next, your out buildings (Garage and shed) can not have a combined sq footage of more than your house.
Cool, I had a plan to make my garage 20x50 (1000sqft) plus my 10x10 shed (100sqft) would equal 1100sqft (Which is 20sqft less than my house). So my 1120sqft house plus the new 1100sqft combined out buildings equals 2220sqft which is 34% coverage of my lot.
Everything seems perfect. Seems like something I can swing. Adding the 20x24 to the back of the garage was gonna cost about $4k for the concrete and $5k for everything above the concrete. I would supply the labor after the concrete was done.
So then I find out that the next hurdle is a little dumb rule: The total sq footage of the outbuildings combined CANNOT exceed 700sqft even if you have less than 35% of your lot used and even if you have the outbuildings total combined sq footage less than your house. I'm at 620sqft right now for my out buildings. The building ordinance guy told me I could only add on 4ft to the back of my garage if I keep my shed or I can add 9ft if I take down my shed.
It's not worth it for either scenerio. Durring the conversation I said "What am I suppse to do? I own 5 cars and it is nearly impossible to keep them all off of the street when we have snow emergencies. It would be nice to be able to fit 4 of them into a bigger garage." and then I asked about a variance but he said that he is sure it would get turned down because 1) City ordinance also states that you can not have more than 3 vehicle in your garage (He showed me the ordinance in writting) so I can't use the "Need more room for cars" excuse. 2) Your neighbors aren't gonna wanna look at a 20x50 "warehouse" looking garage. 3) The variace committee will just flat out turn you down.
So frustrating.
I understand that building ordinances are there for a reason but this sucks. I have about 55ft of space behind my garage just sitting there being wasted.
 
If you push youll get it. My house is out of code in like 5 different ways and we fought rochester hills on all of them and got our way. One was being 10 ft off the lot line, all our neighbors had to sign off on it and then they were fine with it.
 
Come down to Grosse Pointe Park! We pay crazy taxes, but when I proposed a 40 x 28 garage, they didn't bat an eyelash. And I still won't have the biggest garage on the street!

-Geoff
 
There's nothing more infuriating than dealing with the endless supply of local zoning requirements.
 
At least take it in and try to get a variance. Don't listed to one guy. Talk to your bordering neighbors and get letters of approval from them that it wouldn't bother any of them. And plead your case. Maybe they will issue the variance. Just explain you need room to work on hobby projects and tinkering. Not that you need to park 5 cars. Good luck!
 
It costs $500 to apply for a variance. If you are denied, you don't get the money back. I already went down that road 7 years ago on my addition. My house is 3ft off of the property line but new rules say you have to be 4ft off of the line so I couldn't make my addition the full width of the back of my house. I applied for the variance and got shot down and had to revise my plans and have a stupid looking 1ft jog/bump in at the back of my house. Threw that $400 (Back then) in the toilet.
I would pay $500 additional to have my way but I would go postal if I paid $500 and got turned down.
I'm gonna think about it over the next few days and decided what I want to do. Last year we were thinking about moving. We might just do that. I was gonna try to stick it out and make things better with a nicer garage but if I can't even have that why should I stay at put up with the trash that is going on in my neighborhood.
 
Bummer! Instead of letting you improve the property you need end up in a pissing match with the city to try to get what you want. It sounds like a move is in your future.

A 40x165 lot, I can imagine your pain. I feel cramped at times and I could fit 20 of those lots in my yard.
 
braxx said:
It costs $500 to apply for a variance. If you are denied, you don't get the money back. I already went down that road 7 years ago on my addition. My house is 3ft off of the property line but new rules say you have to be 4ft off of the line so I couldn't make my addition the full width of the back of my house. I applied for the variance and got shot down and had to revise my plans and have a stupid looking 1ft jog/bump in at the back of my house. Threw that $400 (Back then) in the toilet.
I would pay $500 additional to have my way but I would go postal if I paid $500 and got turned down.
I'm gonna think about it over the next few days and decided what I want to do. Last year we were thinking about moving. We might just do that. I was gonna try to stick it out and make things better with a nicer garage but if I can't even have that why should I stay at put up with the trash that is going on in my neighborhood.
Click to expand...

I am at this point right now... Build, or move? Really considering throwing up a 24x26, and a year later, pouring a 10ft slab to the left and building an addition with no permits.
 
Tell them that it'll support the community with more tax revenue based on your property tax increase and will also allow you to teach your child how to wood and metal work to better his/her future.
 
F'em....Have the pad poured, and tehn do your own framing and then voila! your garage is up and then just let them bitch....i have a couple neighbors in my sib that did that, and the city kinda had no choice but to allow the variance. You would think that in our current economy, the fact that people are spending money on there current homes instead of ditching them would make the cities happy....Hell, one neighbor just got approved for and built a 3.5 car garage that is 2 stories tall at the back of his property, and he alreadu has a 2.5 attached garage that he now made a "drive through to get out back, and poured a shit ton of concrete...looks sweet. I'm gonna go make friends when he moves in and brings the cars...i see alot of house remodeling going on right now.
 
Dearborn heights is a bunch of retards with their zoning rules. Before the housing crash, my dad bought a foreclosure. We took a duplex and turned it into one house, just joined the downstairs and up, it was a very nice house. But we had to fight the city for almost 9 months because they wanted to demolish it because it sat empty for 4 months, no other reason
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top