And then there was one...

I have been telling my daughter that there were three hoops that we had to jump through to begin building the house, gaining acceptance from the wetlands commission, the planning and zoning commission, and acceptance from the bank.  Last night we received acceptance from p&z, though not without some effort.

Teri and I both coach our kid's soccer teams.  I coach Rebecca's, she coaches Dan's.  So we rescheduled our practice last night to 5:30 so that we could make the seven o'clock p&z meeting.  We needn't have bothered.  Little did we know there was an applicant scheduled before us.  Someone wanted to get an application approved to build a used car lot on route 44. WOW!  There were forty people at the meeting to protest this application.  So, Teri, the three kids, (yes we did bring them) had to sit for two and a half hours listening to this proposal and the angry citizens trying to shoot it down.  The kids were great.  I can't believe how well behaved they all were. Beyond amazing.

Finally it was our turn.  I introduced myself, and our intentions to build.  By this time, it seemed that the committee just wanted to be done, and were ready to accept the minute I stood up.  However, there was a small wrinkle in the process.  To apply for the permit, you need to put signs up on each corner and send registered letters to each person that owns property next to ours telling them about this public meeting.  One of our neighbors showed up! When the chairman asked if there were any comments from the floor, this person, stood up and said "Currently I have a view of the lake from my house.  If this house gets built, I will lose the view.  I am very uncomfortable about this.  This will lower the value of my house if this really large house gets built."  Oops.

The chair asked Bob, our neighbor "Sir, do you have lake front property?" (this is a tax designation)
Bob: "no"
Chairman "Sir, do you have lake VIEW property?" (another tax designation)
Bob: "no"
Chair "Then as long as the applicant has followed the statutes and obligations of residental zoning, which he has, we have no recourse to deny the application."

WHEW!

One last issue, about the existing well, was brought up and I satisfied it.  Unanimus approval!
Hopefully we will have bank approval by the end of the week, our building permit by the end of the week, and our demo bid at the same time.  Things are really beginning to heat up.


Thanks for reading.