Almost the whole Gunnerson Gang (minus Geoff and Jadi's family) together on Thanksgiving!I must start by saying that the random laws and red tape that exist in our county government are absurd. Let me just go through the process that we have had to go through in an effort to obtain a building permit to build in wonderful Summit County....
1. Buy land
2. Buy house plans
3. Have land surveyed
4. Have house plans engineered to meet Summit County code
5. Have engineers draw up a site plan of your lot and house
6. have ground tested for wetness
7. Finally think you have done all you need to do to apply for the permit; make appointment to submit application, and of course pay just to submit the application.
8. Get list of things the County thinks is missing from your application. Ours included contour lines on the site map and elevation of the garage entry. (Apparently even though you own a FLAT piece of land they need these VERY IMPORTANT things. I mean, how can the fire trucks get up your driveway if it is to steep. To steep? Did I mention the land is FLAT?!)
9. Have engineers REDO the site plan to include the VERY IMPORTANT things.
10. Repeat number 7.
11. Get new list of things that the county needs. This time it is a "Heat loss study" done by a heating and air conditioning contractor to determine if your house is not going to waste natural resources, additional windows put into your bonus room to meet the "daylight" requirement, and a certificate from the Army Corps of Engineers that your land is not "wetlands".
12. Have engineers REDO house plans with additional window in bonus room.
13. Call Army Corps of Engineers (ACoE). Call again. Call again until they finally come to look at the land.
14. Hear from the ACoE that the land is pretty wet and you need to hire a wetlands consultant to test the soil, water table, and plant life for a final determination on the "wetlands" condition. (Yes, we need to protect the many endangered species that live ONLY on our little one acre in the special wetlands flora and fauna that ONLY grows on our little one acre. Seriously, there are houses on BOTH sides of our lot. Somehow that is not wetlands, but our little acre is?)
15. Have the wetlands consultant tell you that she wants to wait until spring to come test your land because she can't possible do it with snow on the ground. (Yes, that SKIFF of snow we received last night would be IMPOSSIBLE to dig through to get to the ground).
16. If the consultant determines that the land is wetlands, spend even more TIME and MONEY submitting petitions and applications to even be able to build on the land you have previously purchased to BUILD your HOME on!
17. Scream and cry that 9 months after moving to Utah you are still living in two bedrooms of your parent's home with everything you own in storage, wasting money paying on a mortgage for land that YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO BUILD ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If this seems like complete madness to you, you are right. I understand the need for government and laws and enforcement of said laws; but obviously there are times when the government it taking away your rights! Like my right to build a house on property I own! For heaven's sake, I am not trying to build a nuclear waste facility in the middle of a neighborhood next to a school!!!!!!! To date we are 5 months and about $10,000 into trying to obtain the ever elusive PERMIT to BUILD in Summit County.
16 comments:
I am so sorry!!! You have just convinced me to NEVER buy property to build on. It sounds like a nightmare. I hope your luck changes and things will somehow go through sooner then later.
There are times I wish we were able to build ourselves a home. This is not one of them. So sorry for all the hazzle. Hope it gets better as time goes by.
See another good reason why I didn't build in Summitt County!(Don't tell Uncle Jay that I said that)
Oh dear one, I am so sorry. I know how frustrated you are about now...I can even picture us on a walk and you venting these frustrations to me! :) All these headaches are temporary and who knows...perhaps by this time next year you will be posting photos of your christmas tree in your new home!
I know this isn't all that great of news either, but they say you have to build 3 houses in order to get it done right... Just think happy thoughts!
I think there is more to it than meets the eye:
1) Rick met with the County when we were working on incorporating Woodland
2) Rick was DeLoy's attorney when the County put DeLoy's name 2nd on the ballot instead of first because he was both the incumbent and won the primary
I think the County folks just want to show Rick who the boss really is. I trust those people about as far as I can throw them!
Ah that last comment is by Billie Sue -- I guess Olivia had been on the computer and didn't sign out, so it really is me!
GRRR! I'm so mad for you...how in the world did Jody just build a house last year? I am so sorry. While I do have a lot of sympathy for you, I am still jealous that you are at least THAT close to building a home in Woodland. I think I'd trade a lot to live in a bedroom in Mom's house sometimes...
I'm so sorry, Liv. Keep your spirits up. Maybe the Grinches will feel the holiday spirit and let your appeals go through to finally get building. I love you! Can't wait to see you!
Olivia, I can truly sympathize having recently gone through the process. We had about 3 final interviews/meetings to receive the permit (after fixing the 30 things they listed), and at each one they added something else they wanted done. They would seriously say, "That looks good, now I want you to do this..." Which was never on a list or ever heard of. I don't know why they couldn't have just said it all in the first meeting. We revised our site plan about 5 times as well, luckily Wes' brother Ben is an engineer and helped immensely. Not to leave out Mike (McNulty) who saved us by red-lining everything on our plans. I had to keep my dad out of the process because he just wanted to go tell everyone it was idiotic!
I agree the process is absolutely absurd and seems quite unjust! Wes and his siblings will eventually inherit property in Summit County and I never want to have to go through it again, so I'm hoping maybe by then Oakley will annex it in.
Good Luck!
Olivia, you just convinced me to never build a house up here. I think there should be a checklist and your house/property/plans either work or they don't. Meaning that they can't keep coming back with something new and wrong every time. I think they should get one chance to give you changes and that's it! COME ON!
I'm sorry, but I know it will work out. Hopefully sooner than later!
This may sound absurd, but I can actually picture your screaming and crying fit in my mind! Its a good one, too!
Sorry to tease, but you know how sorry I feel for you and all that you have been going through. It is ridiculous! I just heard something the other day about the number of foreclosures, and the fact that they are making it so difficult for anyone to obtain any sort of loan. The bottom line was, if they would make it just a little easier for the people who are actually qualified, they could potentially buy some of these houses. But that would make too much sense, now wouldn't it!
Keep hoping and praying....its obviously all you can do at this point!
I'm sorry to hear about the problems you're having with your house! I hope that things start moving quickly. I agree that it is sometimes hard to remember all the wonderful things we've been blessed with, when there seems to be so many things that are going wrong. I'm struggling with focusing on all the good things.
If you think it is bad to try to build... which is hard been there and done that. Try being the person on the other end saying why? and what? to the people who make up these rules (and are your boss) oh and don't forget the idiots that came before you the reason why the rules came about. Really, if I can help let me know.
All I can say is- ridiculous! No one ever tells you exactly how much crap you have to go through to actually build a house. Buying a house in the Kamas Valley is sounding a little more appealing than building one right now. It sounds like you are pretty close though and I wish you guys the best of luck!
How funny that we went to the same Jazz game! We wish we could go more often as well. Someday maybe we can both have season tickets!
Hey where are you??? You've disappeared from blogging. I'm missing photos of you and your cute boys...not to mention your whimsical stories that always give me a smile! :)
Olivia,
You've proabably already heard but it's SNOWING in Vegas! Awesome!
I hope you are really enjoying your holidays!!!
Love,
Cassondra
Olivia,
Nothing is wrong with your computer. I just finally took the time to catch up a little. I posted the origional dates so they'd be in order.
Jake is 33 this year. I had to tell him, too. ;)
You can be jealous of my girls cause I'm jealous of your boys so I know how it feels. Maybe we can try to match at least one pair of our kids so we'll have even more reason to keep in touch thru the years.... ;)
Miss you!
Cassondra
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