How to Build a Garage - The quest for approval

How to Build a Garage - The quest for approval:

Normally getting the permit to start work is pretty painless - at least around here, (upstate NY). Everyone is pretty friendly and easy going they'll bust on you a bit with building codes etc. That usually happens after you get the permit to start building. I haven't even got that far on my latest garage.

I got all my ducks in a row, I had my plans, I'd had my survey, I had spoken with the village clerk and the codes officer and my neighbors. Everyone was ok with everything the only sticking point was that I wasn't 10 feet from my neighbors backyard. I'm 50-70 feet from any of their buildings. My driveway runs straight back and fans out to be 25' wide I had planned on putting my 24' garage right there at the end of the driveway. When I had spoken to the village clerk, who is also the neighbor whose backyard isn't 10' away from the garage, she told me she didn't have any problem with it I just had to get approval from the village board. I had started this process in July so I could get it built and situated before the weather started... around here it's usually late November.

I went to the board meeting and they gave me conditional approval - pending their lawyer's final decision. What that means is that I can't start building until I get that approval, which was two weeks ago.

I'm sure I'll get the approval and yes I've been in since to rattle the cage but I guess the moral of the story is that it will always take longer to do anything when the government gets involved - any government so be sure to take that into account when trying to plan - add a month or two for the FUBAR factor.

Thanks for reading