Thread: damn town code

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About 7 years ago I bought an old house w/ a high bank waterview om Bainbridge Island in WA state. It was an old summer cabin that had been built in the late '40s and been udgraded and expanded over the years, then the owners rented it out for about about 10-12 years. The house was structurally sound just needed some serious updating and modernization. The lot in back to the waterfront bank was overgrown with 4th and 5th growth timber, mostly shallow root larch and Manzanita, and russian blackberry, Scotch broom( both non-native)fern and holly, pretty much blocking out a view of Rich Passage from the house, a big selling point for the house and property.
I planned on "flipping" this place and obtained all the permits needed for the remodel from the city, fair enough, especially when I was in the building business, and submitted the paperwork for all the necessary permits for clearing the land and wild growth timber to the Fed EPA, the State Forestry and EPA and the City of BI, Forestry and EPA dept, about $3,000 in fees.
Well I recieved an Ok from the Feds and from State Forestry and EPA. The City of BI Forestry dept and EPA dept is staffed by greenies. The inspector came out to see what I was planning to remove Ok'd the blackberry and Scotch broom and said no way to the timber and holly. Well I blew up at her and pointed out the Feds and State had no problems. She got in hissy fit and made a few rude and unprofessional comments and red flagged any further landscaping. I immediately got on the phone with the city, and within an hour her boss and her were back out on the site. I had met him through the building Dept though I didn't much deal with him. I explained to him exactly what I wanted to do and basically went through the same routine and explanation with him, he turned around to the inspector and told her to leave the paperwork and get back to the office then signed off the permit.

As it was I made a pretty more than fair profit on the property. I have found that if you're pleasant to the the inspectors and the people in the building dept., unless they are way pumped up with their "percieved" power, you generally won't have a problem. And yes some municipalites are worse than others when it comes to fees etc for any type of building and it is a source of income for the city or town but having seen over the years some of the homeowner built structures that have not been inspected or approved ---yikes!
One other thing if you do build or add an addition without a permit and ever decide to sell your property you may find it harder to do because many lending institutions and home inspectors will now check with building depts
to check if proper permits were filed ,issued, and passed.

In my part of town, those canvas awning can only be up for 3 days. Then they must come down. The next town over, they have an Art Commitee that must approve any upgrades to your house, including color.

I built my garage about 8 years ago without a permit, no one ever said a thing but when I wanted to run gas for the furnace I had to get one. So I went in and they said I had to get 5 inspections done by 5 different departments. You should have seen the structural guy look at me when he saw it . He just looked at me and said it's done now and he couldn't do anything so he signed off both my initial and final permits. The electrical guy got mad at me and gave me a big lecture but signed it off anyways (only had to rewire one plug), then he had to come back to check it, a whole day wasted waiting again. Then 2 more days for the gas guy. So in the end I wasted 5 days but saved on property tax for 7 years. My conclusion, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission!!!

Oh yea, the one guy told me I also needed permits for my patio, my 8x8 shed and the retaining wall around my rear driveway....I said I'd apply for them that week, right.

Sean.