There comes a time when your outrage reaches the point of no return. Where you need to get on what platform or soapbox you have and cry FOUL!
In this case, the platform is a crumbling screen porch, but I won’t let that deter me.
I bought a house in November, 2007. It was built in 1982. When it was built, a screen porch was included on the back side of the house, facing a beautiful open space now preserved in a trust as a side effect of a nearby subdivision. It hasn’t been maintained properly. Here’s what it looks like:
So if you want to be a law-abiding citizen, you follow procedure: go to the building department of the town government, managed in my case by Kaija Gilmore, and get advice. Her advice, though I paraphrase:
“The screen porch exists; you want to repair it and strengthen it; go to Zoning for a special permit but I don’t see any problem.”
Tonight (May 8th, 2008) my file came before Zoning for review. Zoning board is chaired by a local lawyer by the name of Stephen D. Anderson. Having paid my $315 fee and filed numerous copies of plans, drawings, and completed town zoning board forms, I presented my humble case.
“I would like to repair my screen porch, and in the process remove some of the structre (the adjacent decking) thereby reducing its proximity to the property’s rear boundary. By the way beyond the rear boundary is PRESERVED LAND which will NEVER BE BUILT UPON. The screen porch has been standing unmaintained for TWENTY SIX YEARS.”
So I want to fix it, render it a more sound structure, and draw it BACK from the nearest property line.
Zoning board Chief Stephen D. Anderson’s response: SORRY! That’s not how we do things around here. You need to provide a certified plot plan and specific measurements — evidently because though I am IMPROVING the setback situation, and MAINTAINING the existing structure, I need to establish that my project is merely a REPAIR. Building department honcho Kaija Gilmore then piped in that it was more than a repair, because of my desire to replace rotten footings with concrete tubes. The fact that the building code to which she was referring was enacted LONG SINCE the structure was erected and LONG AFTER any statute of limitation on a violation has ELAPSED evidently escaped notice by the august board.
So after hours invested and hundreds of dollars, I must further: Produce a certified plot plan (despite the fact that this dwelling has changed hands and been plotted and titled and filed with registries at least four times); consult with the building code authoritarians with that in hand about testing the improvement against the standard for “repair,” versus “addition,” and revisit the zoning board — only to WITHDRAW the original proposal, put together by a mere citizen trying to do the right thing.
On the positive side, there were one or two members of the board who seemed to be trying to do the right thing. Thank you, David W. Brown, for your common sense remarks. Unfortunately your words were offset by the imperious and disrespectful attitude demonstrated by Stephen D. Anderson, the zoning board chair and a local attorney who clearly enjoys his zoning board job way too much.
I am but a simple citizen trying to navigate the Byzantine pathways of the Andover building and zoning codes…and for my good faith effort I had the pleasure of paying a bunch of money, being insulted in front of a room full of people, and then told to come back for more of same in three weeks time. I can hardly wait.
Here are the other members of the Andover Twilight Zoning Board who heroically strive to prevent the repair of a rotten screen porches in our fair city. Join me in saluting these hard working bureaucrats who sacrifice their own time so that others may be prevented from repairing their homes:
Stephen D. Anderson, Chair
Paul Bevacqua
Carol C. McDonough
Peter F. Reilly
Nancy K. Jeton
David W. Brown, Associate
Lynne S. Batchelder, Associate
Shelley Ranalli, Associate
Rachel Baime, Associate
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