Journey to an Approved Permit

After 196 days, we finally have an approved building permit!… Yep, you read that right, 6 1/2 long months to get a building permit for a single, modest-sized home on a 3 acre lot. When we first started this process, I fully expected to have a permit in hand after about 60 days, so I was either excessively naive or simply did not anticipate the level of creative regulatory interpretation employed by county staffers to make the process as long and painful as possible.

By any definition of the word, this experience was truly an adventure. It started with the exciting anticipation of what was to come, was full of surprising twists and turns, moments of anxious hope, periods of slogging drudgery, and finally the reward of attaining the goal after so many bumps along the way.

So, what could possibly lead to such a convoluted process?

Was it the house design – No! Was it access to or location of utilities – No! Was it a problem with property line offsets – again, No!… The single issue that caused all of the delay, was the uncelebrated, lowly gravel driveway, or more accurately stated, the first 60 feet of a driveway that will ultimately exceed 500 feet in length.

The reward for all the time, cost and frustration will be the most over-engineered ditch crossing along our entire rural road. Although our future neighbors directly to our north and south have to cross the same roadside ditch, their driveways feature a single 12 inch diameter pipe simply dropped into the ditch where their driveways are located. Our entrance, on the other hand, will feature two concrete abutments with a tandem of 32″ drainage pipes. Enough drainage volume to easily control a small creek with continuous flow, not the trickle of water that typically flows during the rainy season.

But, despite the setbacks and delays we are excited to finally have the sanctioned greenlight to proceed with construction of the road entrance and eventually the house that will sit at the top of the rise… which we have affectionately named… “Hope Rise.”