Indescribable

I am totally at a loss for words to describe our experience with Summit County.

Unreasonable was doing a heat-loss evaluation to make sure that our house would be efficient enough not to waste natural resources.

Ludicrous was adding another window to the bonus room to ensure we had enough daylight in the room.

Preposterous was having our engineers redraw our site plan to include contour lines and elevation of the garage entry...on our FLAT lot.

Outrageous was finding out we had to have a wetlands consultant come and map the wetlands that exist ONLY on our one acre (and paying her $2,500).

Obscene was paying a $100 application fee and waiting one month to have our petition heard before the board of adjustments.

Shocking was getting a bill from the county for advertising in the newspaper and sending out postcards to make a public notice of the hearing.

The only word I have left that seems to fit the situation is unconscionable, and even that does not seem strong enough.

Last night was our meeting with the board of adjustments to see if they would pass our application to build closer than 40 feet to the wetlands on our lot. No, we did not get approved. They tabled the application for another month to see if we can come up with another plan they like a little better. I can't get into the details of what we have done in the last month (since the application was made and before the board met to make a decision) to try to meet the demands of the county while still being able to build our house, but needless to say we thought that we had a great case to make when we explained to them that we cannot move our house in farther away from the wetlands and still have the sewer/septic system where it needs to be. I am not even joking when I say that they would like us to see if we could move the house even 5 feet. FIVE FEET! You have got to be kidding me!!!!!!!! Oh, I assure you they are not kidding.

I actually did not go to the meeting because I was teaching my aerobics and yoga classes (and because I was not sure I could go and NOT physically or verbally attack someone) but Rick had an interesting story to tell me when he got home. The application presented right before ours was finally passed...after ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess that these people applied for a building permit to build a cabin up Weber canyon one year ago and have been going through much of the same garbage with the county as we have. They have gone so far as to buy the lot of land right next to theirs to try to meet all of the county's requirements. The problem? The front corner of the DECK on the cabin was 27 feet from the road on the front and 29 feet from the road on the corner (they have a corner lot). The county setback is 30 feet. When they finally passed their application last night, the woman broke down and started crying! Yes, I'm totally serious.

I wished that I had video documented this entire experience so that I could present it to anyone who thinks that Summit County is not completely and totally over-the-top out of control.

Wish us luck next month. Obviously we will need it.