I attended a meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals last night for Habitat. We requested a variance to the setback requirements so that footprint of the new house we're planning can encroach upon the build line by 8 feet, leaving it 12 feet from the property line. All of the other houses on the street are 12 feet from the property lines, and by doing this...we could avoid working around a rather steep grade in the back of the house. Not only were we not approved, but one member of the board methodically attacked each and every one of our points and insisted that we could build the house without a variance if we simply turn the house 90 degrees and run the driveway up to the back of the house instead of the front. This means extensive excavation and a rather large (and long) retaining wall would be needed.

Funny how we can't use money as a hardship reason to request the variance but all of the solutions we can use to accomodate our need without the variance will add 30% to the cost of the house, hence making it not affordable housing.

A little research revealed that he is an asshole. He constantly fights with the town and has filed 109...yes, 109 suits claiming violations of the Freedom of Information Act stating that various town officials have denied him his right to access documents he requests.

AND....he slipped up and mentioned that he's familiar with the land because he looked at it when it went up for silent bid. I think he wanted the land but we out bid him. That's why he's got a hair across his ass!

Asshole!

__________________
Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.