My head hurts because of permit people

This week our contractor has been getting the proper permits and filling us in on some of the dumbest City of Austin housing restrictions I’ve ever heard of. We found out yesterday that because we have to demolish the first floor and can’t save any walls we have to move the first floor in by six inches. Our garage is 6 inches too close to the 5 feet setback on our property line. While 6 inches doesn’t sound like a big deal, I’ll tell you why it actually is a big deal.

Since our second story is being remodeled, not demolished (the term the City gives our situation), it’s grandfathered in and doesn’t have to move six inches. This will allow us to keep the original metal-work stairs and also keep the entry where it currently is. We can also keep the cast iron plumbing for the upstairs toilet. If we move the second story to match the first floor footprint we’d have to pay $500 more to have it moved, pay to have the cast iron plumbing replaced, and the kicker: we would have to move the entry to another side of the garage and replace the retro-cool stairs because the rise on them is 1/8” too low (or high—I forget). We’d have to do this because moving the second story means it’s no longer grandfathered in. What’s the solution? Our second story will hang over the first by six inches. Even my five-year-old neighbor can figure out why that code is just plain stupid and why exceptions should be made.



My contractor tells me a year ago this wouldn’t have been an issue. The footprint of our garage could have stayed the same (first and second floors). However, due to greedy developers coming into old neighborhoods in Austin and tearing down homes to make way for McMansions, City ordinances have gotten stricter. The McMansion that was built next to our house a few years ago is no longer legal because of its “billboard” wall that runs 100 feet along our property line. Under the new code the wall would have to have a setback every 32 feet. I really wish that house would have been built after the ordinance was created (it’s that blue thing you see in the photos—the double-high-double-wide, as we like to call it). While I support the McMansion ordinance I feel it’s not fair to those who aren’t demolishing an entire building, are basically keeping the same footprint, and have an issue with six inches. I feel our six inches should be grandfathered in, but on paper it looks bad to the City. In person their moronic ordinance will look dumb. It seems as though the City is making paper more important than design, which I think is the exact opposite of what this ordinance is about.

Stay tuned for "Day 1" and the story of how the second story will be raised by Junior Brown. You just gotta love a name like that.