Variance

Soo.... were you expecting

YESS!!!! we got it!!!!!

or

BOO HOOOOO, we didn't?

Well, I thought I'd be writing one of those last night, (we didn' get home till 10 o'clock) but what actually happened is they continued our case till the next meeting. For those who haven't heard the story, our next door neighbor has this ridiculous and illogical fear that, if we're allowed to change the buffer in any way, it will make the water in the creek back up into her yard and maybe even her house. It doesn't matter to her that we're not going to disturb the creek, that we are not going to be building in the drainage easement that existed before the houses were sited, that our addition will be at a higher elevation than her house etc. In fact, though she stated in her original letter that if an engineer could assure her that our addition would not impact her, she wouldn't oppose the variance, a letter that I got from the town engineer stating exactly this was dismissed out of hand by her at the meeting.

From the way she stood at the microphone last night and talked and talked and talked, and not one question, comment point, or suggestion made by us, the board, or the town planner made any difference whatsoever to her, we have begun to believe that she's just enjoying being able to meddle in something. If she'd just be slightly reasonable, if she'd just give some hint that she's actually listening to anything anyone says with the mindset that SOMETHING someone says MIGHT POSSIBLY have the ability to change her mind it wouldn't be as frustrating.

Now, in the Board's defense, I don't think that they really think she'll have any trouble with water based on our addition, however, the way the meeting went last night she is definitely what got them going down the path of thinking that no one involved has quite sufficient knowledge of how the creek behaves during a heavy rainstorm or flood, so they've suspended the case until the next meeting (first Thursday of October) so that, during the intervening time, we can find out whatever it is we need to know and come back to the Board with more information. One of the 2 Town Engineers is apparently a stormwater expert, and she, (not the guy I've actually been talking to) recommended in her report that 50 year flood calculations be done in case our addition, located so close to the stream, should be in danger during a significant flood. (notice, not because there's any danger to our neighbor!) So we're supposed to start with a conversation with her about what those calculations mean, if she can/ will do them, if not will she recommend someone who can, how much will THAT cost, etc.

So we'll see. We're going to go back not just with engineering, but with photos of that part of the yard, information on exactly what a rain garden is, how to size one, and a plan for where ours will be (that came up too-- how do they know we'll build the rain garden, and properly?) maybe i'll even do some other pretty presentation type thing (they seem to like that, based on the case before ours)

We are both seriously annoyed at our neighbor now, especially since though it's completely her fault we're in this situation, even if she changed her mind comepletely at this point it wouldn't do any good.